Miraculous: Tales of Dark Chaos: A New Hero in Paris
by White Fire the Dragon
Summary: In another multiverse, every now and then Ladybug and Chat Noir must face new challenges, but now they must face a new challenge and meet a new hero. As for this new hero, he must face the challenges of a strange new world, a strange new body, and a growing darkness within to find a way back home. Note: I *DO NOT* own Miraculous or Sonic the Hedgehog or any characters what so ever.
1. Chapter 1

Episode 1: A New Hero in Paris

It was a lovely day in Paris. The citizens were going about their happy lives. No problems, no worries, no troubles what so ever… you know, so far at least. For two certain crime fighters, the city's resident daily saviors, Ladybug and Chat Noir, this was considered a slow day, meaning that they could relax for the time being, but could never **truly** let their guard down.

But for a day as perfect as this, what could possibly go wrong? "I can't **believe** I slept in… again! I'm **so** late!" Oh yeah, there's that. "Oh, excuse me!" said Marinette as she tried her best to weave through the crowd of people on the sidewalk. "Pardon me!" Once she was through, the only thing standing between her and her goal point was the crosswalk, which was currently covered in cars. "Oh! Hurry up! I have to get to school before the first bell!"

"I tried to tell you staying up late studying was a bad idea." Said Tikki from inside Marinette's bag.

"I know, I **know**! I thought that some extra- **extra** studying would better prepare me for the test today! Now I'll be lucky if I make it in _**time**_ for the test!"

As soon as all of the cars had passed, she was ready to cross; unfortunately, so were the people behind her and in front of her crossing from the opposite side, all of which rushed to get across the road. with so many people, she eventually became confused and once all of the people had dispersed, she finally saw that she was on the other side of the wrong crosswalk, somehow.

"What?!" She exclaimed in surprise.

She turned around and saw her school. Worried for how little time was left until the bell, she decided to make a run for it, hoping to make it before the light changed. Unfortunately, with her home blocking her view, Marinette had no way of noticing the eminent danger that she was rapidly approaching.

"Excuse me! Sorry!" she said as she ran past more people, albeit, less than before.

She was in such a rush, she didn't notice the light for the crosswalk turn red _or_ the large truck driving down the road, until it was too late.

"Marinette, LOOK OUT!" shouted Tikki, noticing the large vehicle. Marinette turned her head just in time to see it as well as her life flash before her eyes.

"AHHHHHH!"

 _ **HONK HONK**_

 _ **VROOM**_

As Marinette felt a gust of wind, as well as heard the truck rush by, she opened her eye to find that she was sitting on the sidewalk. In front of her was a pair a legs in long black pants. She followed the legs upward to see a black shirt with red at the bottom rim, neck line, and at the edges of the sleeves. The hands wore black fingerless gloves with red on the wrists and gold ring-like bracelets of some-kind. When she finally reached the head, she saw spiky black hair, with red highlights.

"Are you alright?" said the deep voice of the stranger before her who refused to turn around.

She stared at the back of his head for a while, wide eyed, as she tried to piece together what had just happened in her head. She knew that the last thing she saw right in front of her face was the front of the truck. Then, all of a sudden, she was right on the sidewalk. Then it hit her, but it still didn't make much sense.

"Did you just… save me?" she asked the dark stranger. He crossed his arms and nodded in response, still facing his back to her.

"You should get to school. You don't want to be late." He said before turning the corner and walking down it. As he turned to his right, it allowed Marinette to see the side of the face of her savior. He had a somewhat darker complexion than her, and his eye was red. This was what she took note of most. His dark, mysterious red eyes that held rage, grief, indifference, but also mystery and for a split-second… relief. Perhaps that she was unharmed? She _did_ in-fact, know one thing, but also **didn't** know another. She knew that she had never seen him before, but she didn't know how he had saved her so fast from imminent danger.

Her examination of his face didn't last long, though. After he began walking down the sidewalk, she couldn't see his face anymore, he kept walking until he reached an alley and then turned allowing Marinette to see the side of his face one last time. Just before he entered, Marinette remembered that she wanted to know how he saved her so quickly. She then got up as quickly as possible and ran after him.

"Hey, wait!" She called as the dark stranger entered the alleyway. "I wanted to ask you-"

Her sentence was cut short as she immediately saw once she had finally reached the alley, that he was gone without a trace.

"Uh, Tikki?" She asked the kwami in her bag. "Did you see that?"

"Uh-huh." She said in response. "Where do you think he went?"

"I… don't know." Her expression turned from curious to bewildered. "He just… vanished."

"We can figure it out later. Right now, you should get to class."

"Huh?... Oh RIGHT!" She then continued her sprint across the street and on to class, but not without still wondering… "Just who was that?"

Later in her class room, Marinette managed to sneak in undetected by her teacher, who was busy looking for the test papers. Those who saw her didn't want to play the part of the snitch, and Chloé was too busy reapplying her make-up to notice. Sabrina, her loyal "friend", was too focused on holding the mirror for her at the perfect angle to make sure that she didn't miss a spot.

On her way to her seat, Marinette gave a quick wave to her boyfriend/crime fighting partner, Adrien, a.k.a. Chat Noir. He waved back and gave a quick wink to his girlfriend as she passed by. Adrien's best friend, Nino, also acknowledged her presence by waving, which she happily returned. As she sat down at her assigned seat she was greeted by _her_ best friend, who sat next to her, Alya.

After the test papers were finally acquired, Marinette and Alya agreed to talk later, Marinette was acknowledged for coming in late by her teacher (she knew all along), and the test began. After the class finished their tests, did the bell ring, signaling five minutes of free-time. In that time, Alya, Adrien, and Nino decided to talk to Marinette about why she was so late.

"So what was it _this_ time?" asked her friend Alya.

" _(sigh)_ Where should I start?" Marinette responded. "Tikki and I decided to get some extra- **extra** studying done…"

"Uh-huh…" Alya said skeptically.

" _(sigh)_ Alright, _I_ decided to get some extra- **extra** studying done last night. So then I slept through my alarm and I was running late-"

"Why didn't Tikki just wake you up?"

"Marinette had me read her questions off flashcards. _(yawn)_ " Tikki said, poking her head out of Marinette's bag.

"That's another thing about us kwamis." Said Plagg, as he appeared from Adrien's pocket and rested on his shoulder. "We're full of energy, but we still need to sleep and eat just as you humans do. Speaking of which..."

"You'll get your camembert at lunch, Plagg, now get down before someone sees you." Said Adrien, taking the dark, feline-like, kwami and putting him back into his pocket.

" _Anyway_ ," said Marinette, continuing her story. "then I had to run all the way from home to school and I almost got hit by a truck-"

"WHAT!" the entire group said out loud gaining the attention of some other students passing by. Only after the other students continued on with their _own_ business, did _they_ continue on.

"Are you alright?!" Adrien asked her, checking for even the slightest scratch on her face.

"I'm fine, Adrien." She told him as she removed his hands from her face and held them in hers. "He saved me before the truck hit."

" _(sigh)_ Well that's a reli— Wait, ' **he** '? 'He', who?"

"I don't know." Marinette began to recall the past events in her mind. "All I know is that one minute I'm seeing my reflection in the truck's front bumper, and then the next minute I'm sitting on the sidewalk, seeing black pant-legs."

"'Black pant-legs'?" asked Alya.

"Well, that was the first thing I saw before I looked up and saw the rest of him."

"Well, what did he look like?" asked Nino, finally joining in the conversation verbally.

"Well," Marinette tried to remember the details of her mysterious savior. "other than the black pants, he had on a black shirt, and he had dark hair with red highlights."

" **Highlights**? Seriously?" said Alya. "Did you at least see his face?"

"Only half of his face. He never looked directly at me. His skin was kind of tanish, and his eyes were… red."

"Red? Like he was crying?" asked Adrien.

"No, his eyes were literally red. You know the color around the pupil?"

"Whoa, red eyes? Seriously? That sounds awesome!" exclaimed Nino.

"I've definitely never seen him before. I definitely would've remembered those eyes. Those… deep mysterious crimson eyes."

"Whoa, watch it girl. Or else kitty here might stick his claws into your new 'friend'." Said Alya amusingly pointing to Marinette's boyfriend who's face held so much jealousy.

"What? I'm perfectly calm." Adrien obviously lied.

"Heh, what's wrong buddy?" Nino whispered while nudging his best friend's shoulder. "Big, bad Chat Noir can't handle his lucky Ladybug being saved by someone else for once?" Nino continued to chuckle quietly into his fist until Adrien decided to get back at him by elbowing his arm. "Ow! Hey!"

"Nino? **Not** helping." Adrien told him.

"Oh, come on, Adrien. You know your Marinette's favorite hero." Said Alya.

"She's right." Said Marinette holding Adrien's arm and kissing his cheek in confirmation.

"Heh, very well, m'lady." He said kissing her back.

" _Still, I wish I could've spoken with that other guy, whoever he was. How did he save me so fast?_ " Marinette thought to herself.

After school had finally come to a close, Marinette, Adrien, Alya, and Nino decided to go see a movie showing across town. They were halfway there when Marinette remembered something.

"Wait, hold on!"

All of her friends stopped in their tracks and turned to look at her. She was digging though her backpack for something but couldn't find it.

"Oh, no. Oh, no! I can't believe I forgot it!"

"Woah, calm down, Marinette." Said Alya. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot that I have to return a library book to the library soon or else it'll be overdue! Oh, I was just in such a rush to get to school, that I must have forgot it at home. I have to go get it and return it right now!"

"Hold on!" said Adrien. "I'll go with you."

"Adrien, that's sweet, but you really don't have to."

"Actually, after what happened today, I think it'll be for the best. I just want to make sure your safe."

"Don't worry about it." Said Nino from behind him. "Alya and I will wait for you guys at the theatre."

" _(sigh)_ Alright, let's go." Said Marinette, heading off with Adrien to her home.

On the way there, they decided to talk about one of their more previous adventures against one of their akumatized enemies. Marinette was enjoying the alone time, that is until she saw something familiar. Spikey black hair with red highlights.

" _Huh?! Wait a minute!_ " she thought to herself.

She recognized the hair and knew who it belonged too. Without another thought, she hurried over to him, leaving Adrien behind.

"Huh, Marinette? Hey, where are goi -" Adrien cut himself off after seeing just where she was going. He had remembered Marinette's description of his hair and recognized it. His jealousy rising, he walked over behind Marinette. She slowed her approach down to a walk, while smiling casually. After approaching the dark stranger, she decided to make herself known.

" _(ahem)_ "

"Hm?"

The dark stranger turned around halfway to his left and saw who it was. Marinette was finally able to see his whole face. His left side was exactly identical to his right, and both of his eyes were indeed red.

"Hello, I'm not sure if you remember me but- um…" she didn't finish her sentence after noticing his face turn away from her. Adrien _would've_ loved to tell him off for being so rude to a lady, his **girlfriend,** no less, but the serious look that Marinette gave him told him to let her speak. She turned back to continue. "Well… as I was saying, you rescued me earlier and-"

"Don't mention it… **ever**." He said, only turning around on the word "ever" to make sure his point got through.

"I… um…" Marinette was unsure what was happening but tried to continue nonetheless. "I just wanted to say-"

"You have nothing to thank me for." Said the stranger without turning around.

"Huh?"

"You were going to thank me for saving you, but there is no need. So just forget that you ever saw me."

"Huh? But…!" she never finished as he walked away from her.

After watching the scene play out, Adrien had had enough. Angered, he marched over to the dark stranger to give him a piece of his mind.

"Hey! She was trying to thank you, and you just brush her off?!" Adrien exclaimed in a fit of anger. "Don't you know how to treat a lady?!"

As Adrien kept shouting at the stranger, the stranger seemed to just keep ignoring him. Marinette noticed the stranger reach into his pockets but then drew back and walked away.

"Hey, I'm not done talking to you!" Adrien continued.

Marinette saw something fall from the stranger's pocket. It didn't appear to be on purpose since it wasn't in his hand. The back of his hand seemed to just drag it out. The item fell onto the sidewalk and she picked it up.

"Huh?" she said, looking at what had appeared to be a photograph of a young girl in a blue dress and an old man with a long, white mustache, "Who are-" she was once again cut off by the stranger as he quickly snatched the photo out of her hand and deeply scowled at her.

"Never. Touch this. **Again**." He then turned around, shoved the photo back into his pocket and began to leave once again.

"But… how did he…?" said Adrien wondered as he looked between the stranger and where was standing not even a moment ago.

Meanwhile, across town, in a dark tower, someone was drawn to the feeling of intense negative emotions.

"Ah. I can feel the negativity from here. Whoever they are, they shall get what's coming to them, and _I_ shall have another chance to steal Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses!"

At that moment, a white butterfly flew down into the palm of his hand and he then covered it with his other one. Suddenly, dark energy began to pour into the butterfly, and as he removed his hand, the white butterfly had been changed into an evil akuma, which he then released. He watched as it flew out the window and toward its intended target.

"Go my evil little akuma, and evilize him!"

The akuma flew across town and made it to where it was supposed to be. Marinette was about ready to give up until she noticed the strange black butterfly flying down and recognized it as an akuma. She decided to immediately inform Adrien. Adrien looked about ready to teach the rude dark stranger a lesson, until he was stopped by the feeling of someone pulling his arm.

"Adrien!" He turned around to see his girlfriend who looked worried about something.

"Huh? What is it?" He got his answer when she pointed toward the source of her worry. His faced turned from curious to worry also when he noticed the akuma, and who it was flying to.

"Hey, wait!" Adrien said as he hurried after the dark stranger.

"Stop!" said Marinette following as well, trying to get his attention.

The stranger stopped and turned his head but it was too late. The stranger noticed the black butterfly and watched it fly down onto his photograph. He tried to shake it off but it had dissolved into the photo.

"What?!"

The stranger watched as it became encased in dark energy until it touched his hand. Marinette and Adrien saw the entire scene play out before them. Adrien was about to pull Marinette off to the side so that they could transform, but Marinette stopped him.

"Wait! Look." She pointed to the stranger, who was now holding his head and shaking it side to side. Resistance to an akuma was something that they had never witnessed before. They were **both** surprised to say the least.

"Na-augh! I don't care who you are." said the stranger. "Get out of my head!"

"Wow, no way!" said Adrien.

"I don't believe it." Said Marinette. "He's… resisting Hawkmoth's influence."

"I've let others into my mind before. I won't allow it again! Get. Out! Or! Else!" The stranger was shouting at the voice in his head. "This… is… your final… warning!"

Adrien and Marinette watched as the stranger reached into his pocket.

"Get! Out! NOW!"

" _What is he doing?_ " wondered Marinette and Adrien.

"I… warned you." The stranger then pulled out a large, glowing, yellow gemstone from his pocket and held it out in front of him. "My name… is… **Shadow**!" He held onto the yellow gem with both hands and shouted. "Chaos Control!"

Marinette and Adrien watched as the area in front of the stranger glowed bright yellow. Soon after, the light faded. The two of them were unsure of what had just happened. The stranger was not transformed into a supervillain and his photograph had turn back to normal. All of which confused them further.

Then Marinette saw the stranger look down. He was staring at what was once the akuma that somehow had seemed to have been turned back into a regular white butterfly without her aid. But then, she saw his face. The stranger's face. It was filled with absolute scorn as he stared directly at the little thing. She watched as he moved his white, red, and black shoe over the little creature as it struggled to fly away. Marinette hoped that he wasn't about to do what she thought he was about to do, until she heard him speak.

"Annoying little pest!" She was about to stop him, but it was too late. He brought his foot down with such force.

 _ **SQUASH**_

He smeared his shoe on the sidewalk to ensure that the deed was done. Marinette and Adrien were speechless to say the least. Once he was finished, he continued his walk. For a moment, Marinette just stood there staring at the poor creature's corpse, but then said something.

"Why?" said Marinette, causing this "Shadow" to turn to her. "It was just a little butterfly. Why kill it?"

She looked him in the eyes, but they were different this time. His eyes seemed completely indifferent. As if void of _all_ human emotion. His face held a neutral expression as he spoke with a neutral tone. "Because it was annoying." He placed the photograph and yellow gem back into his pocket and left without another word.

"C'mon, Marinette." Said Adrien, holding Marinette close. "Let's go." They too left, continuing on their way to Marinette's home. One last time, Marinette turned to look back at him. Her face held such disappointment. She had expected the person who had saved her life this morning to be someone kind. Not… _this_. She was as confused as she was disappointed. She just didn't understand. But how _could_ she understand from what she couldn't see? How could she have known the truth without first knowing the most important truth first and foremost? That her mysterious rescuer… wasn't **human**?


	2. Announcement

I will try to upload new chapters every Friday, but my internet access is a little iffy. However, this story as a whole is merely one episode of an even larger story.


	3. Chapter 2

Let us flash back to yesterday so to fully understand **how** Shadow ended up in this situation. It was a bright and shiny day on the planet Mobius. Flickies were singing. Flowers were blooming. People; humans and mobians alike, were either peacefully sleeping the night or day away, or enjoying the beauty that their world had to offer, regardless of the time of day. It was peaceful. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about the Space Colony ARK, the abandoned research lab that housed the deadly super weapon known as the Eclipse Cannon.

The evil scientist, Dr. Eggman, had infiltrated the ARK and was planning to recalibrate the Eclipse Cannon to send out a destructive E.M.P. blast that would destroy all electronics on the planet. He moved most of his empire into space to avoid the blast so that it would be easy for his robot and Egg Army forces to take over the planet. He just needed to add one more thing.

"Hyper-go-ons!" said the mad doctor. "One of the most powerful sources of energy in the universe! Once I add them into the eclipse cannon, combined with the power of the seven chaos emeralds, it will become unstoppable! OH-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"I don't think so Egg-head!" said someone from behind him.

The doctor turned around to see his arch nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog, along with the persistent and yet incredibly strong Amy Rose, the admittedly intelligent Miles "Tails" Prower, and the ultimate lifeform himself, Shadow the Hedgehog, standing on the other side of the walkway that lead to the control panel.

"YOU?! How did _you_ get here?!"

"We got a lift from G.U.N." said the blue blur. "You'd be surprised with the perks that come with saving the world every so often. Unfortunately, there aren't that many vacation days."

"Heh-heh, don't worry. Pretty soon you and your friends will be taking a _permanent_ vacation!" said the mad doctor, calling his Egg-mobile and getting in. "You're too late by the way. The chaos energies and hyper-go-ons are already synthesizing together. Once that is done, the Eclipse Cannon will fire and every electronic on the planet will explode! Say goodbye to your precious Sky Patrol station and your little Freedom Fighter pals on it. Oh, and let's not forget your G.U.N. buddies' forces or that traitorous trashcan, Omega!"

"It's bad enough that you even set **foot** here, Doctor," said Shadow, "but to tamper with the Eclipse Cannon, _**and**_ set it on Mobius?! You've crossed the line!"

"Now you're gonna get it, Eggman!" said Amy.

"Even if you stop me, you'll never stop the Eclipse Cannon. Even _with_ the Master Emerald, the hyper-go-ons synthesized with the power from the emeralds makes it too powerful to stop! And unfortunately, you don't have the help of your little Wisp buddies this time. Now there is literally NO STOPPING ME! OHHH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO…!"

With that, he flew out the room, leaving the heroes alone on the walkway. Nothing blocking them from the control panel.

"Ta-ta!"

Tails and Shadow hurried to the computer and analyzed the data.

"He's right," said Tails, "it's too powerful to stop. Even _with_ the chaos emeralds."

"Then… what are we going to-" Amy was interrupted.

"You two go stop the Doctor. Tails and _I_ will stop the Eclipse Cannon. GO!" said Shadow.

Amy and Sonic both nodded.

"Good luck, guys!" said Sonic, giving them a thumbs up before carrying Amy away with him to chase down the doctor.

"How are we going to stop it?" asked Tails. "Even from here, there's no way."

"There is _one_ way." Said Shadow. "We can re-direct the energy flow."

"But to where? The chances of the emeralds containing the hyper-go-ons _directly_ is **too** low!"

"They'll only have to contain them for a few seconds. Then _I'll_ handle the rest."

"Wait, _you_?! Can you even _handle_ hyper-go-ons like Sonic?!"

"We don't have time to argue, Tails, and we have no other options!"

Seeing that Shadow was right, Tails agreed and the two of them got to work. Shadow had connected two cords from the emeralds to his wrists, and removed his rings. After about a minute, everything was set and Tails was ready to hit the button. There was just one last thing.

"Are you sure about this, Shadow?"

"We're out of time, Tails. DO IT!"

Tails hit the button and a humming noise was heard throughout the ARK. The flow of energy was being directed back into the emeralds. They stared to shake in response to the foreign energies that were the hyper-go-ons. The energy then started leaving the emeralds and made its way through the cords and into Shadow's body. He could feel the power building; it was too much.

He entered his super state, but still, he could barely take it. The power just kept building up. If he didn't expel it soon he would most likely perish, but it was too dangerous to use a chaos blast in such a confined space, especially with the others there as well. So that left only one other option. He drew in his arms and legs, floating in mid-air. The power started to leak out. He flashed different colors: gold, cyan, yellow, orange, pink, blue, green, purple, and then it would start all over again even faster. He had to do it now or it would be too late.

"C-chaos… CONTROOOOOL!" he shouted, throwing out his arms and legs. The colors took the form of a rainbow sphere that encircled his body. The multi-colored lights shining from the sphere glowed bright. Then in a great big flash of rainbow light that momentarily blinded Tails…

 _ **VOIP**_

… he was gone. When Tails' eyes were good enough for his see, he saw that Shadow was no-longer around.

"Shadow?" he called. "Shadow?!"

"Tails?!" he heard his best-friend and big brother calling.

Sonic and Amy had returned after- once again -defeating Eggman, only to see Tails alone in the control room after a flash of light, and Shadow nowhere in sight.

"Sonic, Amy! Did you see Shadow?

"Wasn't he with you?" asked Amy.

Sonic took notice of the machine built to hold the chaos emeralds.

"Tails, where are the chaos emeralds?!"

Tails turned around and Amy looked up. They both gasped when they saw that the emeralds were gone as well. Sonic put Amy down and started running around the ARK, searching for any trace of Shadow _or_ the emeralds. He even looked out all of the windows. Tails and Amy checked the security footage, but they all could clearly see that Shadow and the emeralds were nowhere on the ARK.

"…Where did he go?" asked Amy.

* * *

Shadow was falling. He fell and fell and fell... until he finally hit the ground.

"Oof! _(groan)_ …"

He opened his eyes and saw the bright blue sky.

"Wait, what?"

He got up and looked around, he noticed that he was back on the planet's surface… only… something seemed… wrong. He couldn't see a single mobian. Nothing but humans. He also noticed that he didn't recognize anything. Far off in the distance, he could see a large pointed metal tower. He also noticed that he was… taller? He looked down and saw that he was wearing strange clothes and his rings were once again on his wrists and his arms had no fur, which surprised him.

He stumbled a little after taking a step back and caught himself on something made of glass. He turned around and saw that it was a glass window, but that wasn't the only thing that he saw… He saw… himself…? He was… he was… human?!

"AH! Whoa! Ugh!"

He fell back onto the sidewalk. He lifted a hand up soon followed by the other one as soon as he felt his bare hairless face. He also felt the hair that was on his head, it was spiky but it had no quills. He didn't understand what was happening.

"What in Chaos' name is going on?!"

"Excusez-moi, êtes-vous d'accord?" he heard a male voice.

* * *

*"Excuse me, are you alright?

* * *

In his state of shock, he didn't notice that he was attracting the attention of passersby. They all looked at him with strange and curious looks. He turned his attention toward the man who had appeared to be talking to him. The man wore a grey suit with a matching hat and a tie. He also had a strange whistle tied around his neck.

"Êtes-vous d'accord?" he asked once again, offering his hand in assistance.

This man was speaking in a foreign language that Shadow recognized. He remembered hearing Sonic's friend Antoine speak in it when he first met the Freedom Fighters. Antoine looked like he was going to wet his pants the day they met… well, if he wore them anyway. He remembered that this language was called "French".

Fortunately, Shadow had studied, learned, and mastered _many_ foreign languages, French included. "Mastered" meaning that he could read, speak, and pronounce the words in the language so perfectly that he could pass as whatever nationality he was trying to impersonate. Not that he ever needed to… until now that is.

" _(ahem)_ " Shadow began after paying no mind to the hand that the man offered and picking _himself_ up. "Oui. Nous vous remercions de votre préoccupation."

* * *

*"Yes, thank you for your concern."

* * *

Everyone around them went back to minding their own business. Shadow took another look around and then asked-

"Si je ne vous dérange pas de me demander, -"

* * *

*"If you don't mind me asking, -"

* * *

From here on out, Shadow will be speaking in French, but any internal dialog or external talking to _himself_ will be in English.

* * *

"-where am I exactly?"

The man looked at Shadow quite odd. Shadow understood this. People don't normally stand in the middle of a city and ask where they are. Luckily, he managed to think of a way out of this.

"Uh, _(ahem)_. Forgive me, I mean, do you know where I might find a place that sells maps? I seem to have lost my way and I need to purchase one immediately."

"Oh, of course. Do hold on for a moment." The man pulled out his cell phone and brought up a map. "There's a store just around the corner there."

"Thank you." Said Shadow the… teenager?

He was about to head off on his way until the man called out to him again.

"Hey, kid, wait!" Shadow turned around in response. He was about to say something about being called a "kid" until he saw the man pointing to something. "Did you drop something?"

Shadow looked to where the man was pointing. Over in the corner, not too far from where he fell, was the yellow chaos emerald.

" _The chaos emerald?!_ " he thought as he went over to pick it up. " _How?!_ "

He made sure to hide his surprise.

"Thank you" he said.

"Oh, don't mention it." Said the man. "Well, have a good one."

And with that he was on his way. Shadow noticed him put the strange whistle to his mouth and heard it make a 'rolloo' sort of sound. He also took notice of the many pigeons that appeared to be following him. He stared for a moment but then decided to pay it no mind.

As Shadow picked up the emerald he could feel its power. It was definitely a chaos emerald. He wondered if maybe he brought them here by accident. If so, then he only hoped that this bad feeling that he had was only paranoia, which it usually never was. He stashed the emerald away into his pocket which seemed to slightly bulge with the large gem being stuffed inside it.

" _Hmph_ , I'm going to need a better way to hold onto these in this form."

He walked off to the corner mentioned earlier. At first he had trouble keeping his balance in his new, taller body, but he quickly adjusted to his new form. He made his way around the corner and found the store.

Shadow entered the store and saw the maps on display, but when he asked the store owner how much they cost, the store owner told him the price was of a certain amount in a type of currency that Shadow was unfamiliar with. After checking his pockets, he remembered that he had brought no money with him to the ARK anyway.

"Forgive me, I just remembered that I'm broke anyway. I guess I should just leave then. Sorry for wasting your time." Said Shadow, trying to act as though he didn't not-know what the currency mentioned was.

After Shadow left the store, he decided to try something else. After making sure that no one was looking, he used his super speed to re-enter the store. The store owner was taken off-guard when he heard the sound of the door opening and closing suddenly along with the slight gust of wind, blowing some of his merchandise off from where they were on display.

"Huh?!" said the store owner, moving around the counter he was behind and walking over to the door.

He looked outside and saw that nobody had appeared to have entered or exited recently. He paid it no mind and went back inside to start cleaning up. Shame that he wasn't paying attention, otherwise he would've noticed that his maps rack was one atlas short.

Shadow stopped running once he knew that he was a fair distance away. He never liked stealing ever since he regained his memories, but he would occasionally resort to it if it was important, and this time it was. After looking through the atlas, he found a map of the city. The name read "Paris". Yet another name he was unfamiliar with.

More and more his suspicions prove to be correct, but just to be sure, he looked through once more until he found the world map. Just one look was enough to prove it. He was in another universe. The planet appeared to be the same, but the continents and countries, as well as their names, were completely different.

After reading the atlas he had discovered that he was in the city of Paris, in a country called "France". That was all he needed to know.

"Tsk, great." He said in displeasure to his current predicament.

" _I suppose now I'll have to find the rest of the chaos emeralds to get back home._ " He thought to himself. " _Well, at least I have one. I can use it to find the other six._ "

Shadow brought out the yellow emerald he collected, held it out in front of him, and focused. He could feel the other emeralds. They were close. Very close… Unusually close.

"Hm?!" Shadow was slightly surprised by something.

" _I… can feel them throughout the city._ " Thought Shadow. " _That's strange, usually they tend to scatter throughout the planet. Oh well, I guess this will just make my job easier. I should start searching._ "

Shadow placed the emerald back into his pocket and took off to begin his search.

* * *

"I've been here since yesterday, and so far I've only found one emerald, but I'm close to another. I can feel it." Said Shadow standing on a school building.

Fortunately, no one saw him, but _he_ could see plenty. After looking around something caught his eye. It was girl with dark hair running down the sidewalk toward the school. No one appeared to be chasing her.

" _Guess she's just late for school._ " Thought Shadow. " _I should get back to-_ "

Shadow was cut off by the sight of a nearby truck driving down the road. The girl had to cross the street if she wanted to get to school, but if she didn't stop soon, then… But she didn't appear to notice the danger that she was literally running into just yet, so it seemed that she wasn't planning on stopping.

" _Come on, stop._ " He said in his head, hoping that the girl would notice her approaching doom. " _Stop._ "

The truck just got closer and closer, as did the girl. They were on a collision course.

"Stop, you stupid girl!" this time he said it rather loudly, but nobody seemed to hear him, especially not the girl.

The girl just kept running. There was no stopping her. He knew that he needed to do something. He looked around. There weren't that many people on the crosswalk that she was quickly approaching… Make that approached. She stepped off, onto the road and right into the truck's path. Shadow was out of time to decide.

"Chaos Control!" he shouted while jumping off the building.

 _ **VOIP**_

He teleported a short distance forward. The girl finally saw the truck. Unfortunately, she was right in front of it. Shadow literally hit the ground running, heading right for the girl.

"AHHHHHH!"

Once the truck was right in front of her, he had arrived at her side. He picked her up, hit the boost on his rocket shoes, propelled forward, and placed her back onto the sidewalk before she could even blink.

 _ **HONK HONK**_

 _ **VROOM**_

Her eyes were closed, no doubt in fear of the experience. Shadow turned around and was relived once he saw the truck pass. Out of "hero's instinct" he decided to ask her how she faired. Though he didn't turn around.

"Are you alright?" he asked the girl.

She seemed hesitant at first but she eventually answered.

"Did you just… save me?"

By the sound of her voice, Shadow could tell she was alright. He crossed his arms in relief.

" _Well, at least she's alright._ " He thought to himself.

He answered her question by merely nodding rather than speaking to her. He remembered that he still had a job to do.

"You should get to school. You don't want to be late." Said Shadow, before turning the corner and walking away.

He saw an entrance to an alleyway and with it, an opportunity to leave without having to explain himself. He made his way to the alleyway entrance and walked in; unfortunately, he could hear the sound of quickened footsteps coming down the sidewalk followed by a girl's voice.

"Hey, wait!"

 _ **VOIP**_

He immediately activated his chaos control again and teleported to the roof of one of the buildings he was between.

"I wanted to ask you-"

He looked down and saw the girl standing in front of the alleyway. She had a confused look on her face.

"Uh, Tikki? Did you see that?" he barely heard her say.

He had to strain his ears, but from the way she said that, she had appeared to be talking to someone. He then noticed something red poking its head out of her bag.

" _What_ is _that?_ " he thought.

It appeared to be talking but he couldn't make out what it was saying. It was speaking far too softly. He watched as the girl took off to school with the strange red creature in her bag.

" _(sigh)_ I don't have time to waste here." He said. "I have to find those emeralds."

With that, he was on his way once again.

* * *

After about eight hours of searching and occasionally passing it by due to his inability to pinpoint its **exact** location _and_ his speed, Shadow had eventually found the blue emerald behind a building.

" _Alright,_ " he thought, holding the emerald in front of him, " _two down, five more to go._ "

He focused on the remaining emeralds. He sensed one but it was difficult to specify where.

" _Hmph_ , alright," he said, "better get going."

He placed the blue emerald inside of his other pocket, and began to make his way to where he sensed it.

" _(Ahem)_ "

Shadow stopped walking when he heard someone behind him clear their throat. The way it sounded, it was almost as if they were trying to get their attention.

"Hm?" he said, turning halfway around out of curiosity.

Standing behind him was non-other than the girl who he had rescued earlier.

"Hello," she said "I'm not sure if you remember me but- um…"

" _It's just that girl from before._ " Shadow thought to himself. " _ **Perfect**_ _, she probably wants to thank me. I don't have time for this. I need to find those emeralds._ "

He turned his head around, deciding to focus on the job at hand.

"Well… as I was saying," she continued, regardless, "you rescued me earlier and-"

" _I can't waste time listening to pointless praise._ " He thought.

"Don't mention it… **ever**." He said, turning partway around on the word 'ever' for further emphasis.

"I… um…" She seemed hesitant but still continued. "I just wanted to say-"

"You have nothing to thank me for." Said Shadow, keeping his head straight, trying to end the conversation.

"Huh?"

"You were going to thank me for saving you, but there is no need. So just forget that you ever saw me."

In order to avoid further conversation, Shadow continued walking.

"Huh? But…!"

" _Don't turn around. Don't turn around…_ " He repeated in his head, trying to pretend not to listen.

"Hey!" Shadow stopped when he heard someone _else_ behind him.

He had been so focused on the girl, that he didn't notice the boy standing behind her.

"She was trying to thank you, and you just brush her off?!" The boy said in a fit of anger. "Don't you know how to treat a lady?!"

Shadow was already becoming annoyed by this boy. So much that he was considering pulling out a chaos emerald and teleporting as far away from there as possible. He was considering it, but stopped about halfway from pulling out the emerald completely. He closed his eyes, tuned out the world for a moment, and let go, pulling out his hand but allowing the emerald itself to fall back into his pocket. He then decided to just continue walking. Maybe he could find another alley where he could disappear?

"Hey, I not done talking to you!" he heard the boy behind him shout.

Shadow was starting to get annoyed again; fortunately, he had a special means of calming himself down when tuning out the world wasn't enough. However, after reaching his hand **back** into his pocket, he felt around for something, but couldn't find it. His photograph of Maria and the Professor was missing. His brain started to go into a panic until…

"Huh?" Shadow heard the girl's voice again and instantly turned around. "Who are-"

He rushed forward past boy before he could even blink and snatched the photo from the girl's hands.

"Never. Touch this. **Again**." He said, scowling at her deeply.

He then turned around, shoved the photo back into his pocket, and began to leave once again.

"But… how did he…?" Shadow heard the boy ask as he passed.

He tried to focus on finding the emeralds, but it was difficult after witnessing a person touching that which was more precious to him than his own life. He felt anger towards the girl for touching it, but then remembered that she had no way of knowing that the photograph was his most treasured possession. He then started to feel guilt for being cross with her. It really wasn't her fault. He then started to feel sorrow, but that was natural. Thinking of the Prof. and Maria always made him feel sad at first. The fact that he gave another girl a death glare didn't help.

"Tsk, great." He said, so quietly, that no one heard him.

" _Now I'm letting my negative_ emotions _distract me from-_ "

"Hey, wait!"

"Stop!"

"Hm?!" His internal dialog was interrupted by the sound of the two behind him.

He turned around and at first all that he saw was them running toward him, but then he noticed a strange black butterfly. He eyed it curiously, until it landed on his photo. He tried to shake it off, but it appeared to have dissolved into the photo.

"What?!"

He then saw the photo turn black as some kind of dark energy began spread throughout it until all of the photo, except for the actual picture, was pure black. And when the dark energy touched his hand, he began to feel something familiar. It was a feeling that he recognized all too well. It was a feeling that he despised. It was the feeling of someone trying to enter his mind and take control. Then he could hear a deep male voice in his head. A voice that called him the wrong name.

"Dark Hand, I am Hawkmoth. I give you the power to share your sorrow with the world, but first you must-"

"Na-augh!" Hawkmoth's proposal was interrupted by something he had never felt when akumatizing someone before… resistance. "I don't care who you are, but get out of my head!"

Hawkmoth was struggling, trying his best to control the stranger's mind, but to no avail. "Please, calm down! Just… let me… speak!"

"I've let others into my mind before. I won't allow it again! Get. Out! Or! Else!"

" **You** … can't resist **me**! It's not… possible!" No one could see it, but Hawkmoth was also holding _his_ head as he struggled.

"This… is… your final… warning!" Shadow reached into his pocket. "Get! Out! NOW!"

"Never…! Let me… grant you… POWER!"

"I… warned you." Shadow brought out the yellow chaos emerald and held it out in front of him.

"Dark Hand… listen… to me!"

"My name… is… **Shadow**!" He held onto the emerald with both hands and shouted. "Chaos Control!"

The emerald illuminated everything in front of him with bright yellow light.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Hawkmoth screamed when he felt a searing pain rush through his head as his connection to the boy's mind was severed. In the process, his kwami, Nooroo, was knocked out of his Miraculous. " _(pant) (pant)_ How… how can someone be capable of such power?"

"It was like… nothing I ever felt before." Said Nooroo.

"Just who… or what… **is** that boy, exactly?"

* * *

The emerald's light faded and just as soon as Hawkmoth's voice had appeared in his head, he was gone. Unfortunately, and unknowingly, in the process of ridding his mind the intruder's voice, Shadow had absorbed the dark energy from the black butterfly once he initiated chaos control.

He felt shaken up and his brain felt sore once it was over, but he quickly recovered from the experience. But when he looked down, he saw a little white butterfly fall from his photo. It looked so weak, almost as if it were injured. He stared at it with absolute scorn and moved his white, red, and black shoe over the little creature as it struggled to fly away. Nobody saw the skin around his eyes turn red or his eyes themselves turn yellow for a moment.

"Annoying little pest!" He said as he brought his foot down with much force.

 _ **SQUASH**_

He smeared his shoe on the sidewalk to ensure that the deed was done. Once he was finished, he continued his walk. He took a few steps forward before he heard the girl's voice again.

"Why?" Shadow turned to her. "It was just a little butterfly. Why kill it?"

His face held a neutral expression as he spoke with a neutral tone. "Because it was annoying." He then turned and left without another word, placing the photograph and the emerald back into his pocket.

"C'mon, Marinette." He heard the boy say as he left. "Let's go."

Shadow could hear them walking away, but, although he had no way of knowing for sure without turning around, he had a feeling that the girl was looking at him. He ignored it and continued his walk to the third emerald. However, he felt something… else. Something wrong… with himself.


	4. Chapter 3

It was later on in the day. After the events of earlier, Shadow was continuing on his mission, but with a growing darkness within him. Along the way, he had walked past a clothing store. He went inside and grabbed a black zip-up hoodie that he found in a clearance bin in the very back. He also managed to swipe a black backpack that he decided to use to carry the other five emeralds while he kept the two he already found in his pant pockets.

While the girl at checkout was away from the cash register, Shadow snuck back there to remove the alarm tags and then left the store before anyone saw him. He didn't even _need_ to use his speed. He then continued on his way to the emerald.

* * *

After about a few minutes of walking, Shadow, now wearing his new black hoodie and backpack, had come across an odd art museum with a glass pyramid as the entrance. He pulled up his hood, entered, and walked around, focused on finding the third chaos emerald. After a while of searching he came across a statue. Sitting atop its head was none other than the white emerald.

He didn't care at this point if someone saw him. He jumped up, grabbed the gem, and landed with ease.

"Hey!" he heard a voice call out. "What do you think you're doing? That's museum property!"

Shadow turned and saw a security guard walking towards him.

"You are wrong." Shadow said to the security guard. "You don't even know what this is, but _I_ do. And I know that it **doesn't** belong here."

"Yeah, right. Tell it to the police, because I'm calling them."

"I can prove to you that this doesn't belong in your world." Shadow held the emerald out in front of him and held it in both hands.

"Hello?" the security guard spoke into a walkie-talkie. "Get me the police, we've got an art thief here."

"Chaos…" At that moment the guard stopped and stared at the gem as it started to glow. "… Control!"

 _ **VOIP**_

In a flash of white light, he was gone, leaving the security guard speechless.

"Hello?" came a voice from his walkie-talkie. "What was that?"

"Uh…" the security guard could hardly think of what to say after witnessing that. "… Never mind."

* * *

Shadow appeared outside, behind the museum entrance. He held the emerald out before him and stared at it.

"Finally, the third chaos emerald." He said to himself. "I can feel its power building up inside me. Now there are only four left. Soon, all of them will be mine! Hhahahahahahahaha…!"

Before he could finish his **evil** laugh, he noticed something fly out of his pocket again as the wind began to pick up. He quickly grabbed it before it flew away. It was his treasured photograph. He stared at the images of Maria and Gerald Robotnik. He was then reminded of his family and his promises to them.

As he looked at the image of Maria, he could hear her voice in his head.

"Shadow."

As he looked at the image of Professor Gerald, he could hear _his_ voice in his head.

"Shadow, my son!"

" _Ugh_!" his head started hurting.

His yellow eyes turned red once again, but he felt something dark inside of him. It was like the Black Arms DNA, only different. It was like… persuasion, like he was being persuaded into letting his dark side out.

"What?!" he said as he finally regained his senses, but he still felt something dark trying to turn _him_ dark from the inside out. " _(pant) (pant)_ What was I… doing? Why would I ever…? What made me…?"

He then remembered back to when that butterfly touched his photograph, and when he stomped on it afterwards.

"What did that butterfly do to me?" he wondered. "And, it was already so weak after. There was no need to… kill it. So why… did I?"

Shadow still felt resentment towards the winged creature, but he also felt guilt for having killed it so mercilessly. The poor thing was already so weak and helpless after he used chaos control, and yet he killed it anyway. It was unlike him.

Shadow remembered the words he said after that girl asked him why he did it. "Because it was annoying." He also remembered that it was black when he first saw it touch the photo, but it turned white after he forced it out.

"The power… the power that it had before. It was so dark, but then I used chaos control to force it out. I must have absorbed its power. That must have been why I was acting… that way, and I can still feel its power trying to influence me. It's so little, and yet I still let it control me. How mortifying. From now on, I'll have to make sure that I don't let it happen again until I can either find a way to purify it, or purge it from my body. But first, I need to find those chaos emeralds."

He removed his hoodie and put it into his backpack. He held out the emerald and focused. He felt another emerald. He put the emerald into his backpack and sped off without anyone seeing him.

* * *

Marinette and Adrien managed to collect the book, return it, and make it in time for the movie. Marinette had decided to tell Alya and Nino about the stranger **after** the movie. She thought that it would probably ruin their good mood and make them not want to see it if she told them beforehand. The sun was setting as Marinette and her friends walked back out of the theatre. Finally, Marinette and Adrien told them about the stranger named "Shadow" and the akuma.

"Woah! That seriously happened?" asked Nino.

"Yeah, it did." Said Adrien, answering his question.

"I don't believe it." Said Alya. "You made him sound like such a great guy and he turns out to be a total jerk!"

"What really surprised _me_ was that he was able to resist one of Hawkmoth's akumas." Said Tikki who had her head out to join in on the conversation.

"Yeah, that sounded totally awesome!" said Nino, receiving unamused looks from his best friend, the kwamis, and his girlfriend. "Uh… but he's still huge jerk!"

"But still, it's weird." Said Alya. "I always thought _nobody_ could resist an akuma. So, how did this guy do it? What do you think, Marinette?"

As she turned to face _her_ best friend, she saw that Marinette didn't seem to be listening. She had her head down and wore a sad look on her face.

"Marinette?" Alya tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

"Huh?" said Marinette. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking."

"About tall, dark, and jerky?"

Hearing Alya refer to him like that to Marinette didn't help Adrien's jealousy _or_ his resentment towards the stranger, Shadow.

" _(sigh)_ Yeah. He just… seemed so different when I first met him. I mean… he saved my life. But then when I saw him…" she paused as she thought back to when Shadow murdered the poor little butterfly in cold blood. "… do that… That… poor butterfly… It wasn't _its_ fault… Hawkmoth made it."

Alya noticed how sad Marinette seemed to be. She put her arm around her in an effort to try and lift her spirits. Adrien saw this and went to Marinette's other side to try and help by holding her hand. Nino, Plagg, and Tikki finished it off by giving her genuine smiles.

"We know that you must feel bad, Marì, but some people just aren't as nice as they seem." Said Adrien.

All of their efforts seemed to work as she began to smile with them. Then, the joyful moment was interrupted by Plagg as he flew in front of them.

"Alright, everyone's happy, but are we all **really** just going to ignore the part where the akuma turned back into a butterfly without Ladybug's yoyo?!"

At that moment, everyone stopped.

"That's right!" said Tikki, joining him at the front. "I can't believe I didn't even think of it!"

"Wait, hold on!" said Alya. "You didn't say anything about the akuma changing back!"

"Seriously?" said Plagg. "You didn't notice when we stopped saying "akuma" and started calling it a "butterfly"?"

"Nope." said Nino, earning him more unamused looks.

"But Plagg is right!" said Tikki. "Only Ladybug can turn an akuma back into a butterfly. So how did _he_ do it."

At that moment, Alya noticed that she couldn't see the sun over the buildings anymore.

"Well, we can talk more about it tomorrow." She said. "I need to get home."

"Oh, I'll walk you home." Said Nino to his girlfriend. "See ya, guys."

"See ya." Said Adrien to the two of them. "Come on, Marinette. I'll walk _you_ home."

"Thanks, Adrien." She said to her boyfriend.

* * *

It soon got dark and Shadow was using the dark of night to his advantage, leaping from rooftop to rooftop with his speed and agility; however, after searching for the emeralds, saving a girl's life, and fighting off the evil influence of a black butterfly, he was starting to feel a little fatigued. After looking around, he saw what appeared to be a lawn chair on a small rooftop terrace.

He figured it was as good as anything, and better than nothing. He bounded to said terrace and landed carefully and quietly onto it. Looking around, he made sure nobody saw him and checked the trapdoor that lead inside. It was locked but he heard no noise from the other side. He then decided to lay his backpack next to the chair and make himself comfortable. He soon fell asleep afterward. As soon as he awoke in the morning, he would continue his search.

* * *

Marinette yawned as she came back from the bathroom drying her face off with a towel. She was staying up late again, working on a new design that she wanted to finish. Fortunately, it was Friday, so she didn't have to worry about being late for school in the morning. She was almost done, but it appeared to be missing something. After discarding the towel on her chair, she was considering going out onto the terrace. Perhaps something in the night would inspire her. She walked up the stairs and was about to unlock the trapdoor until her kwami spoke up.

"Marinette, I know you don't have school tomorrow, but I still think you should get some rest. I'm sure you'll be able to think of something great for it after a good night's sleep."

"Hm-hm" she giggled. "Your right. Thanks, Tikki."

"My pleasure." Said Tikki as she rested her head onto Marinette's pillow.

Marinette descended the stairs and soon joined the cute little kwami and rested herself onto her bed. As she started drifting off to sleep, she couldn't help but think about that boy, "Shadow". It was a good thing that Tikki stopped her before she opened the trapdoor to her terrace. If she had stepped outside, she would have found said boy sleeping in her lawn chair.

* * *

Darkness. That was all he saw, darkness. He looked left and right, but he still couldn't see anything.

"Shadow." Came a deep, demonic voice that he knew all too well. "Come to me, my son."

"You aren't my father." He responded. "My father died years ago. You are nothing more than the voice of a deceased king of monsters speaking from the dark corners of my mind."

"Heheh-eheh, are you _still_ trying to convince yourself that you're one of them?"

"I am not a mobian, but I am also not a Black Arm. I am Shadow the Hedgehog, and nothing you say or do will convince me otherwise!"

"What about me?" came another voice that sounded like a combination of Shadow's and the first one.

Shadow turned around and was shocked to see what was before him. It looked just like him only his red stripes were jagged and spiky like saw blades, he wore a brown robe with jewels around his neck, his teeth were sharpened to a point, his hands only had three fingers each and were like claws, he had a third eye on his forehead, and all three of his eyes were yellow instead of red.

"Who… are you?!" Shadow asked.

"I am the you that you _should_ be and what you will soon become." Said the… 'evil Shadow'? "And there is nothing that you can do to stop it."

"You're wrong! I won't become you! I will stay true to who I am!"

"You haven't been true to who you are ever since you awoke! But unfortunately for you, you have no way to stop what's to come."

"No, I can and **will** stop it! I won't allow it to happen!"

"Hha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha… You fool! It's already happening!"

"W-what?!"

Just then, Shadow looked down. Beneath his feet was what appeared to be a kaleidoscope of black butterflies, much like the one he encountered earlier, that flew up and surrounded him.

"Ah! No!"

They attached themselves to him and didn't let go. More and more they covered him head to toe and still, more just kept coming. He was drowning in them.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

"AH!" he awoke early in the day time in a cold sweat.

He was still in the lawn chair on the rooftop terrace, panting from the horrible nightmare he had. Everything was how it was when he had fallen asleep.

" _(sigh)_ "

Shadow decided to get up and continue his search for the remaining chaos emeralds. He walked over to the fencing that protected who-so-ever decided to step out onto the terrace from plummeting to the concrete sidewalk below, and looked out onto the city of Paris. Then he felt something.

" _Ugh_! _(gasp)_ Not again! _H-hu-h-hu-erk_!" Shadow felt the growing darkness within him and did his best to suppress it. " _(pant)_ I… _(pant)_ have to…. _(pant)_ find the… _(pant)_ emeralds... _(pant)_ Blasted, black butterfly!"

After finally suppressing the dark energy as best he could and recovering from the experience, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the chaos emerald. He focused and sensed the other emeralds.

" _Perfect. I've got one, and… it's moving?_ "

Shadow stashed the emerald into his pocket and grabbed his backpack from beside the lawn chair. If the emerald was on the move, then that meant that someone must have found it. He could just as easily take it from whomever they were, but that would attract far too much attention in the day time. He decided to think up a plan to retrieve the emerald.

* * *

Meanwhile, Marinette and Tikki had just recently woken up, and Marinette was already dressed and looked ready to seize the day. That is, until she looked over to her work station and remembered that she wanted to finish the design from last night.

"Oh, heh, right… Okay, I'll just hurry up and get right back to work." She said, hurrying to her work station to commence, except once she got there… "…

…

…

…

… and I got nothing! Oh, I know this is missing _**something**_ , but I just can't figure out _what_!"

"Don't worry, Marinette. I'm sure you'll think of something **great**!" Tikki reassured her.

"Hmmm." Marinette pondered on what to do, but then she remembered. "Oh, that's right! I'll just head outside for some inspiration."

She quickly got up and began to make her way to the stairs that led to the trapdoor to her terrace. Outside, Shadow could hear the sound of someone coming from the other side of the trapdoor. He had to act fast, but just as he was about to make his escape…

"Marinette, could you come down here, please?" Marinette heard her mother, Sabine, calling out to her.

"Oh, _(sigh)_ well I guess I can just go out for some inspiration later. C'mon Tikki."

With that, Marinette grabbed her favorite pink bag, which Tikki quickly flew into, and made her way downstairs. Meanwhile on the terrace, Shadow could hear the footsteps growing farther away from the trapdoor, and gave a low, quiet sigh of relief. Back with Marinette, she had just arrived in the living room only to find it empty.

"Mom?" she called.

"We're down in the bakery." She heard her mother say from downstairs.

Marinette was curious of what could be so important from the bakery. She exited her family's apartment and walked down the stairs to the ground level. Upon her entering the bakery, she was greeted with a big hug from her father, Tom.

"Good morning." She said after returning the embrace. "Now, what's going on?"

"Well, yesterday we received a **huge** cake order." He said.

"A cake?" She asked, questioning how a **cake** order can be "huge".

"Yes," said her mother, "and since _we_ have to stay here to finish it _and_ present it when they come to pick it up, we need you to finish up these deliveries for us."

"Sorry to put so much on you." Said her father.

"Oh, it's okay. Really, I can handle it."

"Great, thanks. The Mayor and his daughter are coming to pick it up this afternoon."

Marinette froze upon hearing that. She was never too fond of Chloé Bourgeois and the feeling was mutual. The two of them had never seen eye-to-eye since the day they met. And now it was worse than ever, ever since Marinette started dating Adrien. Whenever she would get the chance, Chloé would try to make Marinette either look bad, make her just plain miserable, or both.

"Sorry, honey. We thought that you wouldn't like the sound of that. That's why we thought that maybe you would want to just handle the deliveries while your mother and I take care of the Bourgeois' cake order."

" _(sigh)_ I get it dad." Said Marinette.

She almost lost balance once her mother handed her the boxes and the list of places to deliver them to.

"Oh my." Said her mother. "Maybe that's too much."

"Really, mom, it's okay. I can just ask my friends for help, if I need it."

"Well, if you're sure."

With that and a kiss on the head from both of her parents, Marinette left the bakery, boxes in hand, and made her way to make her deliveries. From the terrace, Shadow had decided to stay trailing whoever had the emerald and wait until nightfall to take it back without arousing suspicion. He used the chaos emerald to find the other emerald once again.

" _Hmph_ , alright. Got it." He said, still holding onto the emerald. "Chaos control!"

 _ **VOIP**_

* * *

Via teleportation, he had arrived at his destination. He used the emerald to once again search for the emerald's energy, and it lead him to what appeared to be a clothing store of some kind. He could sense the emerald inside but getting closer. Whomever possessed it was leaving.

The first ones to exit were a teenage girl with blonde hair carrying only one, very miniscule bag, and another teenage girl with orange hair and glasses who was carrying a few larger bags. The two of them were followed by a man who appeared a servant of some kind, seeing as how he appeared to be carrying everything else, which was certainly **much** more than what the orange haired girl was carrying.

What really caught his eye was what the girl with blonde hair was wearing around her neck. It was necklace adorned with several different jewels and at the very center was the cyan emerald.

"A powerful gemstone of virtually limitless power… and she uses it as jewelry."

The last to exit was a larger man with grey hair dressed in a black suit with a sash over it with the colors of the nation's flag on it. The servant took the bags from the two teenaged girls and put them in the back of a spotless, white limousine parked out front. The orange haired girl then proceeded to open the door, allowing the blonde haired girl to enter first, followed by herself, and then the larger man. The servant went to close the door behind him, then made his way to the driver's seat, and they all drove away with Shadow following close behind.

* * *

For the past few hours, Shadow had been shadowing the limousine as it made several stops around the city. The first to exit the vehicle was always the larger man, who he could only guess was the mayor seeing as how _most_ of the places they stopped were of only political importance. None of which had a chaos emerald nearby. He assumed the blonde haired girl was his daughter. The orange haired girl seemed to just be there to do the blonde haired one's bidding, from what he saw. The servant was merely there to carry most of what they bought from the other places, which were basically just clothing stores. He also served as chauffeur.

During the day, there was no way to take the emerald without anyone noticing since she and her father were almost always surrounded by police, and he distinctly remembered what he did at the museum. All that he could do was follow them. After it reached around 2 in the afternoon, he noticed that the limo was driving down a familiar road. He finally realized where as soon as the limo had parked outside a very familiar building.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" He exclaimed, holding his forehead.

It was none other than the one with the terrace where he had spent the night. Had he known that _that_ was where they would have been by then, he would have spent his time pursuing another emerald and then come back to follow them later. He looked around and saw no one around who would notice him.

"Chaos Control."

 _ **VOIP**_

Via chaos control, he made his way to another building across the street. He then took notice of the building that the limo was parked in front of. At its base, there was what appeared to be a bakery. It only had one exit, so he decided to just sit and wait for them to leave.

* * *

Meanwhile inside of the bakery, Marinette's parents had just brought out the finished cake. It was the right size and shape to **just** fit through the door without ruining it at all, **if** the one carrying it was extremely careful, but it was still quite large.

"I just know that you and your daughter are going to love this cake, Mister Mayor." Said Marinette's father, Tom.

"I should hope so. It _is_ for my little princess of course." Said the Mayor.

"It had better be perfect! If it's not perfect, then we're going to have a problem!" Warned Chloé.

"Then let us hope that it _is_ perfect." Her father agreed.

"R-right, uh, perfect." Tom said nervously. "Uh, how about a sample first?"

He then proceeded to bring out a normal sized double layer cake.

"We baked this one out of the same batter."

He placed it on the counter and began to cut it into equal pieces and placed them onto paper plates. Chloé eyed the cake slices and smiled maliciously, while Sabrina was slightly nervous.

* * *

Yesterday, while Marinette and her friends were out at the movies, the Mayor, Chloé, and Sabrina had arrived at the bakery and placed their large order for a special cake.

"Of course, Mister Mayor. Uh, as luck would have it, we are already preparing the batter for that exact same cake. With some time, we should have more than enough for _your_ order." Tom explained

"Perfect, how about, say… tomorrow afternoon?"

"Huh?!" Both bakers were taken completely off guard by their request.

"Well, Mister Mayor," Tom began, "you see, we already have quite a few orders ready and waiting to be delivered tomorrow as it is. So, maybe if you choose to pick it up at another time, then…"

"Actually, given average baking time, and considering you claim to have other orders _ready_ for delivery tomorrow and have the batter for the cake ready as well, with only **some** extra work required to have " _more than enough_ " as you say for the cake, then if you choose to begin right away, you should have just enough time." Sabrina explained, using her phone to help her with the calculations, causing the bakers to stare for a moment.

"Well, that settles that." Said the Mayor.

"I guess it does?" Said Tom.

As the adults discussed price and what the Bourgeois' cake is expected to look like, Chloé had pulled Sabrina off to the side to whisper something into her ear. At first, Sabrina was unsure, but after a cold stare from her "best friend", she soon relented. Chloé then gave her a bottle of perfume, and Sabrina snuck her way behind everyone and into the kitchen where the cake batter was there, waiting to be finished. With slight hesitation, Sabrina proceeded to poor the entire bottle into the batter.

After adding some extra ingredients to hide the aroma and mixing it all together, she snuck back just in time to leave with the Bourgeois.

* * *

Back in the present, the cake slices had just been passed out. Sabrina was hesitant. She couldn't really smell the perfume but she knew it was there. Unfortunately, she had to go along with it as well. Soon, everyone took a big bite and immediately started spitting it out and gagging.

" _Ugh_ , Daddy! This is _**not**_ the cake I wanted, _blegh_ , it tastes, _ugh_ , disgusting!" Chloé shouted.

"What is the meaning of this?!" The infuriated mayor shouted to the bakers.

"I-I don't understand what went wrong! I must've made a mistake somewhere!" Tom responded.

"You did this on purpose!" Exclaimed Chloé. "First Marinette steals the love of my life, then her parents try to poison me!"

"Sir, I can assure you that this was an accident!" Said Sabine. "Please, let us make it up to you."

"You can make it up to me by closing those doors, because from here on out this bakery is officially closed!" Exclaimed the Mayor.

"What?!" Both Marinette's parents shouted in unison.

"It's one thing to **accidentally** poison the mayor, but my daughter as well?! I'll not have it! I advise that you either find a new line of work or leave this city!"

"You, YOU…! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Tom shouted, growing more and more enraged.

"Technically he can. He _is_ the mayor." Sabrina stated.

"Correct, and as the mayor, I am officially closing down this bakery!" With that, the Mayor escorted the girls out of the bakery. "Good day!"

 _ **WHAM**_

After the servant shut the door behind himself, Sabrina, and the Bourgeois, there was nothing but a feeling of sorrow and worry.

"I'm so sorry, dear." Said Sabine.

"No, it's not _your_ fault." Said Tom while holding his head in despair.

"Are you okay?"

"I just… need to go outside for a minute."

By the time he was outside, the mayor's limousine and the one following it were gone. He then proceeded to walk down the sidewalk with his head down. He eventually came to a bench and sat down.

"What are we going to tell Marinette?"

* * *

Meanwhile, watching from a dark room as light began to make its way through a butterfly shaped stained glass window, the evil Hawkmoth was alerted to the negative emotions given off somewhere in the city.

"Ah, when one's failure soon becomes a cause for despair for not only himself but for those he cares for deeply as well. Just what I've been waiting for."

He then opened his hand, letting a white butterfly land on it. Placing his other hand over it, the dark energies began to enter it and it soon became an akuma. With that, he released it and it made its way out of the window.

"Fly away, my evil little akuma, and darken his heart."

The akuma made its way to the bench where Tom sat. Not a moment later, the akuma landed onto the tied knot of his apron and the entire apron soon turned dark. Soon the skin around his eyes turned red and he could hear a voice speaking to him.

"Greetings Baker, I am Hawkmoth. You once merely baked goods to serve others. But now your baked goods can be used to serve your own needs, such as revenge. I only ask for one small thing in return; bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses."

"Once, I make the Mayor pay for _this_ special order, I'll gladly deliver them to you." He said, before standing up.

In an instant, dark energies covered his body, and a moment later the darkness pulled back to reveal his new pale orange skin and red frosting-like mask (I can't think of any good ideas for the rest of his super villain outfit). He then looked over to a random car across the street and smiled evilly. He reached both hands up and in an instant they held two cakes.

"Special order coming up!" Said Baker, throwing his culinary creations at the parked vehicle.

In an instant, the car was transformed into a car shaped pastry that soon collapsed. Afterwards, all that was left was a gooey mess.

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…!" Baker laughed evilly, whilst throwing more baked goods at things, turning them into collapsing culinary creations, causing everyone who saw him to run away in fear.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the park.

"Thanks, you guys. I really appreciate the help." Said Marinette, now holding substantially less than she did this morning.

"No prob., girl. What kind of friends would we be if we _didn't_ help you out?" said Alya.

"A gentleman will always help a lady in need of assistance." Said Adrien.

"Just tell us where these are goin' and we'll get them there, no sweat." Said Nino.

"Alright. Here are the addresses of the people who **placed** orders and **what** they ordered." Said Marinette, putting down the boxes, pulling out the list of orders.

Just as she was about to rip it into four pieces and pass them out, a limousine drove up, beside the park. The ones to step outside it were none other than Chloé and Sabrina.

"Really, Daddy. I really think Sabrina and _I_ should be the ones to tell Marinette the _**tragic**_ news." Said Chloé with false drama.

Without another word, Sabrina closed the door behind them and they headed straight to the group of friends. Chloé acknowledged them almost instantly.

"Oh, look. If it isn't the Loser Squad." Said Chloé, laughing at the end.

" _Ugh_ , what do you want, Chloé? We're busy." Said Alya.

"Oh, don't worry. We won't keep you. Wouldn't want you to be late delivering the last things your family will **ever** be allowed to serve in Paris."

"Huh?!" They all said in response.

"What are you talking about?" Marinette said impatiently.

"Oh, well, after your parents almost poisoned me, my daddy declared that your family's bakery is closed… **for good**." Chloé stated as a matter of fact.

"WHAT?!" they all shouted in response.

"Th-that's not true! It can't be true. No, it isn't true! Y-your lying!" Shouted Marinette.

"If you don't believe me, you can ask daddy. He'll tell you the whole story." Said Chloé pointing back to her father's limousine.

In a huff, Marinette marched right over to the limo where the mayor of Paris was sitting. She took a minute to calm her nerves and knocked on the glass of the window.

 _ **TAP TAP TAP**_

Mayor Bourgeois rolled down the window once he saw who had knocked through the tinted glass. Marinette wasted no time in speaking her mind.

"Sir, please tell me that it's not true!"

" _(sigh)_ I can only assume you mean about your family's bakery closing." Said the mayor. "I'm sorry, Marinette, but it's true. After what happened today, I had no choice."

"But—but—but…"

"Now, I'm sorry…"

* * *

From a distance, Marinette's friends could already tell there was a problem and Chloé wasn't helping.

"Oh, no. Doesn't look like she's taking it all too well." She smiled maliciously at first but then it turned into an innocent one once she turned her attention to Adrien. "Oh Adrikins, don't you notice anything different about me today?"

She stuck out her chest to further show off her new accessory.

"… Another new necklace?" Adrien responded.

" _(scoff)_ This isn't some **ordinary** necklace."

"The jeweler who made it said that _this_ gem is the only one of its kind." Sabrina explained, pointing to the large cyan gem.

"He also said that it matches my eyes perfectly."

"It looks kinda big." Alya commented.

"And… kinda heavy." Nino added.

" _Humph_ , well you know what they say, beauty is pain." She turned her attention back to Adrien. "And speaking of pain, oh Adrikins, it just pains me to see you wasting your time here working for an already closed down bakery. I'd be more than happy to ask my daddy to give you a ride home so that you don't have waste your time here if you were to…~"

"I'm staying with Marinette, Chloé." He responded with an unamused look.

" _Uggh_! Why?! What do you see in… in… _**her**_?!"

"A kind-hearted person."

"Who actually cares about people other than herself." Aly continued.

"And she doesn't act like she's better than everyone else." Nino concluded.

" _Ohhhh_! Fine! Enjoy being with that **loser**!" Chloé exclaimed, enraged. "But remember, I'll be waiting when you **finally** come to your senses."

"Then you're going to have a lo-ng wait." Adrien responded.

" _Ugh_! C'mon Sabrina, we're leaving!"

Chloé left them in a huff with Sabrina following behind, returning to the limo just as Marinette was concluding her discussion with the mayor.

"Now Marinette, I want you to understand that I hold no ill-will against you for… the way things turned out, but this is something else, entirely. I'm sorry, but I cannot, in good conscience, undo what has been done. Not after what happened."

"B-but I…"

"All that I can do is wish you the best for what your family chooses to do."

"DADDY, We're Leaving!" They heard Chloé's voice call from behind Marinette, and she did not look pleased.

Sabrina rushed to the front, causing Marinette to move to the side, so that she could open the limo door for Chloé. Chloé stopped in front of Marinette to give her a death glare and whisper something that only _she_ could hear.

"I can't wait to either see your family leave town, or on the streets begging."

She was infuriated, but hid it well. She showed that by entering the limousine as if she didn't care, followed by Sabrina. As they began to drive away, all that Marinette could think about was how her parents were fairing, and what they were planning to do about this.

As Marinette began to sink further into depression, Adrien came from behind her and wrapped his arm around her. Soon after Marinette noticed this, he proceeded to pull her into loving embrace, that she happily returned, but couldn't help but silently weep into his shoulder. After what she had just heard, she needed both. The embrace and the crying. All of her friends were worried about her and her family, wondering what to do.

On the one-hand, Marinette's family could find a new line of work, but baking was their life. It was what they were known for. On the other-hand, they could go live somewhere where they _could_ bake, but that would mean Marinette would have to leave as well. Both options were terrible ones that only seem to lead to further sadness. What could they do?

" _AHHHH!_ " A terrified cry followed by others broke everyone out of their depressed thoughts.

Everyone appeared to be running from something.

 _ **SPLAT**_

They all turned their attention to a nearby bus as it instantly turned into some kind of giant, bus shaped pastry that fell apart soon after.

" _AHHHH!_ " Came another cry.

 _ **SPLAT**_

They then saw a citizen become instantly encased in… cake batter? They were completely unable to move. All that they could do was struggle underneath it and scream for help which became muffled by the cake batter. Soon more and more people became trapped in cake batter while everything around them turned into collapsing pastries.

It wasn't long until the six of them, including the kwamis, saw who was the cause of it.

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha… soon all of Paris shall become a part of my ultimate culinary masterpiece! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha…"


	5. Chapter 4

As for Shadow, a few minutes earlier, he had followed the limousine to a park. He watched as the blonde haired girl and her lackey exited the limo. Shadow was beginning to get annoyed with how long they were taking to get home. Then, a thought had entered his mind. One he that made him even more annoyed.

"I swear, if they end up driving all over town, just to end up back at that bakery, I'm throwing caution to the wind and just ripping that emerald right off her neck! I don't care how many police I'll have to-!" He suddenly stopped his rant.

This sudden burst of rage was unlike him, but then he noticed the negative feeling that was growing inside, and immediately suppressed the growing darkness within him.

" _Hurk_! _Ugh_! _Gah_! _(pant)_ Dang… _(pant)_ that was close… _(pant_ ) I was actually considering-" He then stopped himself when he noticed something familiar, standing not too much farther away from the limousine. "Wait, what's that?"

Shadow took notice of the black hair in pigtails and then the rest of the girl whose head they were on.

" _It's_ her _!_ " He immediately recognized her as the girl he had met twice before. " _What's_ she _doing here?_ "

He looked past her and saw the boy that she was with, along with two others who he didn't recognize. They were all holding boxes. He turned his attention back to the blonde haired girl and noticed that she was approaching the dark haired girl. They didn't appear to be friends considering how the dark haired one looked displeased merely by laying eyes on the blonde haired girl.

After a moment of talking, the dark haired girl rushed past the blonde, straight to the limousine. She appeared to be in distress. For some reason, curiosity had gotten the better of him. Shadow looked around and saw a bus stop bench nearby. He reached into his pocket, and grabbed a hold of the yellow emerald.

"Chaos Control."

 _ **VOIP**_

In an instant, he teleported himself behind a tree in the park and walked out. No one even noticed him walk by. As he inconspicuously made his way past the girl and mayor, he overheard them talking about closing down a bakery, and from the look on her face as well as the way that her tone had sounded as she spoke, Shadow could ascertain that the girl was _indeed_ distressed. Nonchalantly, he made his way to the bench, keeping his ears focused on the girl and mayor.

He heard the girl talk about how her family's bakery was her family's home and how baking was her family's life. Shadow also heard the mayor speak of the reason _why_ he closed down their bakery. Suffice to say, he didn't approve.

" _He closed down their home… and banned them from doing something they love so much… because_ **one** _cake tasted bad?! Who_ _ **voted**_ _for this_ _ **idiot**_ _?!_ "

He then heard another voice shout out.

"DADDY, we're leaving!" It was the blonde haired girl.

From the bench, Shadow saw the girl giving the dark haired girl a death glare and then saw it change into a neutral look as if nothing happened at all as she entered the limo. When they finally drove away, Shadow knew that he had to follow them, but other girl looked so disheartened. He knew that he shouldn't get involved with other-worlders' lives, but… well Shadow knew what it was like to lose a home. The only difference; she still had her family and friends.

Speaking of which, one of them, the blonde haired boy from before, came to her side. He watched as the boy tended to her, but she was clearly still sad. Eventually, Shadow decided that since the girl was receiving _some_ comfort, and that the limo was starting to drive farther away, it was time to continue his pursuit of the outstretched vehicle.

" _AHHHH!_ " A sudden scream broke his train of thought.

He soon saw that people appeared to be running from… something. They all looked scared.

 _ **SPLAT**_

From across the street, he saw a bus instantly turn into a giant pastry that soon fell apart.

 _ **SPLAT**_

Before his very eyes, he saw the citizens being trapped in… cake batter?

" _Huh?_ "

He could see that they were struggling to get out, but the batter seemed to be unbreakable. All that they could do was struggle underneath it and scream for help.

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha…" Shadow suddenly heard someone laughing evilly, "soon all of Paris shall become a part of my ultimate culinary masterpiece! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha…"

"Culinary _what_?" Shadow questioned.

* * *

Thus bringing us to the here and now. Shadow turned his attention to something that he would probably never have expected to see. A large man, dressed in some kind of ridiculous chef costume. The outfit looked like it was made from some kind of slippery, slimy substance rather than fabric. From what he could see, Shadow concluded that, aside from how he looked, this was the last thing he was expecting to find in this world, a supervillain.

" _(sigh)_ "

" _Perfect, just what I need._ " He thought " _I can't risk losing the emerald…"_

Shadow looked at the trail of "destruction" behind him and started to weigh his options.

" _Hmmm…_ "

" _This guy doesn't seem to be_ too _much of a threat. All he seems able to do is throw those pastries around, either turning things into even_ more _pastries, or trapping people in batter. Doesn't_ seem _to be doing much harm._ "

Shadow concluded that this could wait. The emerald was far too important. But… being the hero that he was, he knew that he couldn't leave him there for too long.

" _Maybe if I'm quick enough, they won't notice me take it at their next stop, then I can come back here and deal with this clown. Or maybe I won't even have to, I'm sure the police can handle him for the time being._ "

With that, he hurried after the limousine without anyone noticing. They were all too busy with the psycho baker anyway. Hurrying down the street, Shadow catches a glimpse of the mayor's limousine just before it disappears behind a corner. Shadow speeds off after them.

* * *

At the first sound of trouble, Marinette and Adrien's first response is usually to go and find a private place to transform, but _this_ time, Marinette's response was a look of utter shock. Adrien took notice of this when he tried to pull her away, but she stayed put.

"Huh? Hey, Marinette, c'mon! We've got a job to do!"

Alya and Nino also noticed this and hurried to see what was wrong with their friend.

"Is that… My **Dad**?!" Marinette shouted after noticing just how familiar this new villain was.

After she said that, Adrien and the others finally understood. He _was_ Marinette's father, but he was akumatized.

"Woah, she's right!" said Alya in realization.

In response to her own father being akumatized, Marinette ran right into the middle of the street, right in front of him.

"Huh?! HEY, MARÍ! STOP!" Adrien called for her, but she was already in front of the new villain.

"Dad, what are you doing?!" She called.

"I am **BAKER**!" Announced the new villain. "And I have something **special** prepared for Mayor Bourgeois, and I intend to hand deliver it to him **personally**. Anyone who stands in my way will end up becoming a part of my **ultimate** creation!"

Baker followed up his announcement by flinging more baked goods at Marinette. Just before they made contact, Adrien managed to jump onto her, pushing them both out of the way. Baker would have tried again if he didn't remind himself of his goal. Looking around he saw someone hiding behind a trashcan.

With the toss of a soufflé, the trashcan was instantly turned into a pastry and collapsed, revealing a frightened woman. He approached her, cake in hand.

"I don't suppose you know where the mayor's limo went, do you?" He asked her once he was directly in front of her.

In a single, frightened motion, she pointed in the direction where the limousine had driven away.

"Thank you." He said, dropping the cake onto her, causing her to become trapped in batter.

As luck would have it, a taxi driver had decided drive down that road. Baker leaped in front of the yellow vehicle, causing the driver to immediately slam onto the brakes, resulting in the taxi stopping just before it hit Baker. Baker walked up to the driver's seat window of the taxi.

"That way please," he asked, pointed in the desired direction. "or **else**."

He followed up his demand by summoning pie out of thin air and tossing at a light post causing the whole thing to turning into a pastry and fall apart, pressing his demands with a threat. He leaped onto the roof of the yellow car, and it immediately took off, after the mayor.

After pushing her to safety, Adrien helped Marinette onto her feet.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, sorry about that." She responded. "It… I was just…"

"It's okay. I understand." Adrien figured he would have done the exact same thing if it were _his_ father.

"Marinette!" came Alya's voice from behind them. "Are you okay, girl?!"

"I'm fine, Alya, really." Marinette responded.

"Dude, nice save!" Nino commented regarding Adrien's actions.

Nino was still holding the boxes that Marinette had handed him.

"Looks like you two have work to do." Said Alya.

"She's right. We have to stop Baker." Said Tikki, who came out of Marinette's bag in front of everyone.

"Then what are we waiting for, Christmas?" Said Plagg, joining them.

"But the deliveries!" Said Marinette with worry.

"Don't sweat it, girl. Nino and I can handle it." Said Alya.

"Yeah, you two just focus on saving the day." Said Nino.

"Well, I guess that's that." Said Adrien.

"I guess so." Said Marinette.

While Alya and Nino headed back to the boxes of baked goods, Marinette and Adrien ran off somewhere to transform.

"Are you ready, partner?" Asked Marinette.

"After you, m'lady." Adrien responded.

"Tikki, Spots On! Ha!"

Marinette held up the hair covering her left ear, revealing her black earrings turning red, and almost immediately, Tikki was absorbed into them, causing black spots to appear. Marinette ran her hands across her eyes causing sparkles followed by a red mask with five black spots to appear upon her face. Sparkles then began to cover her body, replacing her usual daily wear with her super hero suit. Her magic yoyo appearing around her waist. She had transformed into the miraculous Ladybug.

"Plagg, Claws Out!"

Adrien held out his right fist, revealing his white ring turning black, and almost immediately, Plagg was absorbed into it, causing a green cat's paw print to appear. Adrien ran two fingers across his eyes causing black a black mask to appear. When he opened his eyes, it revealed that they had turned green and the pupils were thin like a cat's. He then ran both his hands through his hair, causing it to appear messy as well as causing black cat ears to sprout from his head. Green lightning then began to cover his body, replacing his usual daily wear with his super hero suit. His retractable bow staff appearing behind him on his belt. He had transformed into the cunning Chat Noir.

"Let's go!" said Chat Noir.

Using _her_ yoyo and _his_ staff, Ladybug and Chat Noir began making their way to stop Baker.

* * *

Back in the park, Alya was readying her cell phone and Nino was just noticing.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked his girlfriend.

"I have to get this for my Ladyblog. You don't mind taking care of the deliveries for me, do you, Nino?" She asked back.

"Hey, now! Wait a minute! You can't just go off and leave me here to-" He was cut off by his lips colliding with Alya's after she pulled him into a kiss, causing his mind to go blank.

"You were saying?" She asked with a smile after breaking the kiss.

Nino only seemed to utter "uh" repeated with a stunned expression.

"Thanks, sweetie. See ya after the action!"

About a minute after she left, he had regained his composure, finally pieced together what had just happened, and slapped his forehead.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shadow had eventually caught up to the mayor's limousine and continued following it from the rooftops once again. He was weighing his options on how to go about taking the emerald, until he saw something collide with the rear bumper of the limo. It was a cake and it caused the entire limo to end up like all of the _other_ objects hit before; it turned into a pastry and fell apart.

"Oh, no." He said, more out of irritation rather than worry.

* * *

Inside of the limo, the mayor and the girls were taken completely by surprise by the unexpected turn of events. Once the driver had come to a complete stop and abandoned the limo, the mayor and girls, as quickly as they could, opened the door and rushed out. Chloé, charging to be the first one out.

Once they were free from the collapsing, limousine sized pastry, they came face to face with the one responsible. Baker, after jumping off of his ride, he threw a pastry behind him, and it landed on the taxi before it could drive away. The cabbie got out of the car before it fell apart and ran away before he would become apart of Baker's "masterpiece". Baker stood before the mayor, and not a moment later, several police officers rushed to stand between the villain and the mayor so to try and protect him and his daughter from the villain.

"What is the meaning of this?!" The mayor shouted toward the villain.

"My name is Baker, and _you_ are about to become a very important part of my ultimate masterpiece!"

"What nonsense! Police, arrest him!"

"Surrender now, put your hands above your head, and come quietly!" Shouted a policeman through a megaphone.

Baker did _indeed_ put his hands above his head, but only for a baguette and plain loaf of bread to form in them. He put them together, forming some type of hammer, and in one strong motion, brought it down upon ground, creating a small crater, as well as causing a slight earthquake, throwing everyone on the street off balance, causing them to fall down.

"What is this all about?!" The mayor asked, trying to recover from the mild tremor.

"You closed down my livelihood! And now, you will pay!"

In that moment, the mayor had figured out who the villain was.

"Mr. Dupain?!"

"Not anymore."

"Perfect, _it looks like he's targeting the mayor._ " Shadow thought. " _The police are_ _ **sure**_ _to raise their guard now. Now what?_ "

Shadow's only option now was to deal with Baker and then take the emerald as soon as everyone let their guard down. He then proceeded to pull the black hoodie out of his backpack and put it on to hide his identity, seeing as how stealing from the mayor's own daughter was **sure** to get him on a most wanted poster. Better to not let anyone actually see his face then.

Once his face was hidden by the shade of his hood, Shadow was ready to put his plan into action. He would have too, if it weren't for one thing…

 _ **WHOOSH**_

"HUH?!"

… he wasn't the only hero in the city. For a split second, something red had rushed past Shadow's face. After a few seconds, the object responsible for his momentary obscurity of vision had landed in between the police and Baker, followed by another.

"What?!"

" _Who in the world are they?_ "

The first was a girl wearing a red suit with black spots. She had red ribbons in her hair, was wearing a red mask with black spots, and was playing with a red yoyo. The second was a boy wearing a black suit with cat ears. He was wearing a black mask, had green cat eyes, and was holding staff in his hand.

Baker eyed the heroes before him, ready to attack.

"Now, Baker! Get their miraculouses and bring them to **me**!" Hawkmoth telepathically ordered.

"Once I add you two to my ultimate masterpiece, I'll be taking your miraculouses." Baker stated.

"Sorry, but we ordered the special bad guy takedown cake. Not the miraculous thief soufflé." Chat Noir remarked.

" _Did he just make a pun?_ " Shadow thought, his eyebrow slightly twitching at how familiar this was.

"Where do you think the akuma is?" Chat asked his partner quietly.

"I have a feeling it might be in his apron." Ladybug answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"Okay."

After ridding himself of his hammer, Baker didn't hesitate for a second longer, and proceeded to throw pastry after pastry at the heroes, though he was mostly aiming for the ones behind them. After the first pastry was thrown, Chat Noir's staff suddenly grew in size and he started spinning it to shield him from the attacks. Ladybug did the same with her yoyo.

" _What are they doing?! Weren't they paying attention?! His attacks will just transform and_ _ **destroy**_ _them!_ " Thought Shadow.

However, he was wrong. As the pastries made contact with them, neither the staff nor yoyo was transformed. They weren't even cut up by them like propeller blades. Instead, the pastries were being repelled from them like shields somehow. But how? Shadow then noticed the strange glow coming from them. The staff was glowing green while the yoyo was glowing red.

" _Hmmm…_ "

" _Magic maybe?_ "

The heroes were moving their magical instant shields from side to side in order to protect the people behind them as well.

"This isn't working! We can't keep this up all day!" Said Chat Noir.

"You're right, but neither can _he_." Said Ladybug.

She was right, Baker saw that his attempts weren't working, so he tried a different tactic. He stopped throwing pastries and brought out his hammer made of bread. He then brought it down, creating another earthquake, knocking the heroes and everyone behind them off of their feet.

From behind, as Chloé fell foward, her necklace hit the ground, causing the cyan emerald to break-free from it. It then started to bounce away with an audible repeated "tink".

" _(gasp)_ My necklace!" She shouted, grasping the part of her necklace where the emerald once was.

"The emerald!" Shadow exclaimed.

After a few more bounces, the jewel started to slow down and lose momentum, eventually rolling on its side. Once it was right in front of Baker, it stopped. He picked it up and inspected it.

"No!" Shadow exclaimed to deaf ears.

* * *

"What is this?" Asked Hawkmoth as he saw the emerald in Baker's hand. "Wait! I can feel… power. A strong and familiar kind of power… _(gasp)_ THAT BOY!"

It was at that moment that he remembered the boy who he tried to akumatize before but then failed. Through Baker, Hawkmoth could feel and recognize the power that not only prevented him from controlling the boy, but was also strong enough to knock Nooroo out of Hawkmoth's miraculous.

"This has the same power that boy used to resist me before." With an unseen diabolical smile, he made a decision. "Then that means… Baker, take the gem and harness its power."

* * *

Baker held the gem in a tight grasp, unfortunately for Hawkmoth, try as Baker might, nothing seemed to happen. He was incapable of harnessing the jewel's power. Ladybug and Chat Noir decided to take this opportunity to finally attack.

Ladybug threw her yoyo and used it to wrap around Baker's hand, his other one still holding onto the gemstone.

"Chat Noir, now!" She shouted.

Baker was about to defend himself, but whenever he would attempt to raise his hand and summon a pastry, Ladybug would pull it back down. Chat Noir reached out his hand to try and grab his apron. Baker tried his best to dodge, but Ladybug made it difficult, what with her constantly pulling him back into attack range and keeping him from going anywhere else.

Baker knew that it was pointless to try and summon the gems power at the moment, so he threw it up into the air as far as he could, and summoned cake. In one swift motion, he threw it as soon as Chat Noir was in close enough range.

"Ah!" He shouted in response.

 _ **SPLAT**_

Chat's hand was outstretched, just a mere inch away from Baker's apron. Unfortunately, his body was entirely encased in cake batter.

" _(gasp)_ Chat Noir!"

"Mmm-mm-mmmph!" Chat Noir's words were muffled by the batter.

Baker then grabbed the emerald just as it fell into his hand again. He then threw it one more time so that he could free himself of Ladybug's yoyo. Once that was achieved, he grabbed a hold of Ladybug's yoyo and began to swing her over his shoulder and toss her away. Just as she landed on the ground hard, Baker reached out and grabbed the emerald once it fell- once again -back into his hand.

* * *

"Grrr… what could I be doing wrong?! Perhaps it was something the boy did, but wha— wait…" Hawkmoth suddenly recalled his last encounter with the boy.

He remembered how he told him his true name and shouted "Chaos Control!" Because the boy was resisting his power at the time, Hawkmoth couldn't see **everything** about the boy or see through his eyes. Hawkmoth's struggling to maintain the link just to speak to him prevented him from seeing what he looked like or what he was looking at. He could only hear him and he only knew that he was in a deep state of depression because Shadow also seemed to be keeping him from digging too far into his mind.

"Those words he said. Could they be…? Attention! Baker! Hold onto that gem and repeat after me!" He ordered the villain.

* * *

Baker was wearing a sinister smile on his face. Meanwhile, Ladybug had just gotten back onto her feet, and hurried to Chat Noir.

"Chat! Can you hear me?"

"Mm-mm-mm-mm!"

"What?!"

Ladybug received her answer once the batter began to emanate green light and also began to expand like a balloon. The light grew brighter and bubble grew larger until…

"Cataclysm!" Shouted Chat Noir, activating his secret super power causing the batter to explode, leaving nothing but Chat Noir and a harmless mess.

"Are you alright?" Ladybug asked.

"Yeah, I am. Why? Did you miss me, Lovebug?" He asked her.

"Be serious! We have to get that apron and I need _you_ at the top of your game to do it!"

"Relax, m'lady. That was just a little surprise. He's bound to be out of those."

"MYSTERIOUS GEMSTONE!" Shouted Baker, gaining everyone's attention.

* * *

"Grant me the power-" Hawkmoth was telepathically telling him exactly what to say.

* * *

"-TO CRUSH MY ENEMIES AND ANYONE WHO DARES STAND AGAINST ME!"

"…? Is he… talking to a rock?" Chat Noir asked Ladybug.

* * *

"He couldn't possibly know how to-" Shadow was interrupted by something that made him worry.

* * *

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

* * *

"Impossible!"

* * *

As soon as Ladybug heard that, she was instantly reminded of the boy with the red eyes and black, spiky hair with red highlights. Chat Noir on the other hand, forgot and just treated it as a joke. He was going to make a snarky remark until he saw the cyan gem start to glow in Baker's hands. The glow started to spread throughout the rest of Baker's body.

" _Ugh_! _Rrraaaahhhhh_! Yes, I feel the power!" He exclaimed.

A second later, a cyan force field instantly formed around Baker.

"Now, I am… INVINCIBLE!

Baker then raised his hands over his head, and summoned a **giant** cake that glowed with cyan energy. With a single throw of his hands, the cake flew through the air and landed directly on the police, encasing every single police officer in cake batter.

"Whoa! Where'd that sudden burst of power come from?!" Asked Chat Noir.

Ladybug focused her eyes on the gem and remembered that the boy named Shadow had one that looked exactly like it, only _his_ was yellow.

"It's gotta be from that gem he's holding." She deduced. "We need to get it away from him."

"Huh, leave that to me."

Chat Noir followed up on his claim by running straight for Baker with an intension of knocking the gem from his hands. Baker was so focused on admiring the nervous look on the mayor's face after he took out all of the police officers in one go, that he didn't notice Chat Noir's advance from behind until he was close enough. He swung his staff at the hand where the gem was; unfortunately, it was stopped immediately by the force field.

Baker finally noticed Chat Noir and gave him a menacing smile. Chat Noir, on other hand, only laughed nervously. Baker only gave him a swipe with the back of his hand, and it threw him ten feet away.

" _AHHHHH_ … Oof! _(groan)_ "

* * *

As Hawkmoth watched his new enhanced villain, he grew more and more confident that he would win this time.

"The power from this single gem. If I were to use it _myself_ , then combined with the powers I would receive from Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses, I could become even **more** powerful than I ever dreamed!"

With this new goal in mind, he returned to the battle.

"Now, Baker, use your power to destroy Ladybug and Chat Noir, and take their miraculouses!"

* * *

Ladybug hurried to Chat Noir's side.

"Chat! Oh my gosh, are you alright?!" She said, trying to help him up.

" _(Groan)_ I think I just lost one of my nine lives." He said, holding onto Ladybug for support.

 _ **BEEP BEEP**_

"Oh, no. Your miraculous."

After she mentioned it, Chat finally noticed that he was running out of time.

"I can't just leave you here to fight him alone. Not while he's _this_ strong."

"All the more reason for you to hurry now while you still can."

Chat hated the thought of abandoning the girl he loved, but he knew that she was right. He had to hurry and feed Plagg so that he could return and help her. Without another word, he used his staff to get out of sight.

"You're not going anywhere!" Shouted Baker, throwing a pastry at Chat, only for Ladybug to stop it with her yoyo.

"Hey! Don't forget, _I'm_ still here."

"Then I'll deal with you first."

Baker then started throw more pastries harder and faster than before. Without Chat Noir to help her, all that Ladybug could do was run and shield herself. Baker saw that he needed to slow her down somehow, and he needed to use something less soft, unlike his pastries that still seemed to break upon contact with Ladybug's yoyo.

Looking up, he sees the exit from the street behind her. Using his new, stronger power, he summons another giant cake, and throws it in between the buildings behind Ladybug... and then another, and then another until the entire opening was blocked by a wall of cake.

He then looked back to see the mayor and the two girls. He then came up with an idea. He started throwing dozens of pastries skyward. When Ladybug saw this, she couldn't think of why he would do such a thing. But then she saw them start to descend upon those who were still free from the cake batter prison.

Quickly as she could she used her yoyo to fling herself in front of them. She then started spinning her yoyo as the pastries began to get closer. As usual, they all deflected off of the yoyo upon contact. Once the last pastry hit her yoyo, she turned to check those whom she had saved.

" _Phew_ , everyone alright?"

"NO! I am NOT alright! First I lose my special jewel to my new necklace! Then those almost HIT me! If this outfit gets ruined because YOU can't-"

"You know, a simple 'no' would have been good enough." Ladybug cut off Chloé's displeased yelling.

Ladybug then noticed that Baker was nowhere to be seen. She turned around and saw him with a giant bread hammer behind a parked car. Unfortunately, knowing full well what was to come, Ladybug could only gasp in response. Sabrina and the Bourgeois hurried behind her for protection, but rather than the desire to protect, **Marinette** only felt grief from seeing her own father want to get rid of her in such a way.

" _Oh, papa, no._ " She thought.

What she didn't notice was that she was being watched by someone hiding, recording everything with her phone.

"O.M.G. Chat Noir gone to recharge, and Ladybug left alone to fight this guy." Said Alya into her phone. "I don't know about you guys at home, but I, for one, am **actually** getting kinda nervous. But don't anyone worry. If there is _one_ thing I know about Ladybug, it's that she can **always** make the best out of a bad situation. You'll see."

Or, at least, that's what she told them, but she knew Marinette better. So she knew what was going through her mind. All that she could do was hope that either Marinette would pull through or that Chat Noir would come back.

* * *

"Come on. Come on, Plagg! Marinette needs us!" Adrien urged his kwami to eat his camembert cheese faster.

"It's really hard to eat when you keep interrupting me to tell me the exact same thing every time." Plagg responded, rather annoyed.

Adrien saw that he was already almost halfway done and couldn't wait any longer.

"Oh, you've had enough. Plagg, Claws Out!"

Adrien held out his right fist, revealing his white ring turning black, and almost immediately, Plagg was absorbed into it, causing a green cat's paw print to appear. Adrien ran two fingers across his eyes causing black a black mask to appear. When he opened his eyes, it revealed that they had turned green and the pupils were thin like a cat's. He then ran both his hands through his hair, causing it to appear messy as well as causing black cat ears to sprout from his head. Green lightning then began to cover his body, replacing his usual daily wear with his super hero suit. His retractable bow staff appearing behind him on his belt. He had transformed into the cunning Chat Noir.

"Alright, time to get back into action"

Chat used his staff to propel himself back to where he left Ladybug. Standing atop a building, he looked down below to see a wall of cake, Baker standing behind the car with a giant bread hammer, and Ladybug standing in between the captured police, the Bourgeois, and Sabrina, and Baker. And she looked… frozen.

"Oh, no!" Said Adrien. "Don't tell me he's going to…!"

" _Hawkmoth, how can you go about forcing people to hurt the ones they love?!_ "

Baker readied his hammer, and Chat Noir wasted no time jumping right for Ladybug…

 _ **WHAM  
BANG**_

… but he was too late. The vehicle rushed forward upon contact with no chance of stopping. At that moment, a number things had happened…

"NO…!" She shouted.

Marinette fell to her knees…

"LADYBUG!" Shouted Chat Noir.

"MARINETTE!" Shouted Alya, but no one heard her (fortunately she shut off her phone by accident).

… Chat Noir and Alya cried out both of her names…

* * *

"Finally, YES! AH-HA-HAH-HA-HA-HA…"

… Hawkmoth cheered, and…

* * *

 _ **CRASH**_

… and the car… was stopped. Chat Noir stopped and stared as everyone else did. Even Ladybug was broken from her moment of grief to see what had happened. She looked at what had saved them. She saw black pants and a black jacket with a black hood. When she looked at the car directly, she saw that the vehicle had a foot impaled into the front bumper.

"I've done enough waiting around." Came a familiar voice. "I'll deal with you myself."


	6. Chapter 5

Everyone stopped and stared at the newcomer, whose right foot was planted into the front bumper of the car that had almost flattened them. After a few seconds, he finally turned his head. His hood was covering his face in a way that made it difficult to see who it was, even from Ladybug's position. But then he spoke.

"Are you alright?"

Ladybug's eyes widened when she heard his voice utter those words. She refocused her eyes on _his_ eyes rather than his whole face, and then, she saw them; his **red** eyes staring back at her. There was no mistaking those eyes. This was _him_ , the boy who saved her life as Marinette and resisted the akuma before. Shadow.

Shadow turned his head back around and focused on Baker.

"Who are you?!" Baker asked.

"All _you_ need to know is that I'm the one who's going to take you down, and take that emerald." Shadow said, removing his foot from the front of the car and walking around it.

* * *

Hawkmoth couldn't see his face, but in an instant he knew who it was.

"It's the boy! Listen to me Baker! I want you to use your new power and destroy him!"

* * *

"You won't get past **me**!" He shouted, summoning a cake and throwing it at him.

"Look out!" Ladybug exclaimed, but Shadow didn't move.

" _Hmph._ "

He just quickly said…

"Chaos Barrier!"

 _ **SPLAT**_

Rather than trap the boy in a prison of cake batter, the cake splattered on something round. Shadow's body was surrounded by a green force field. The cake batter only slid off of it. The force field soon dissipated, allowing the splattered mess to land onto the ground.

"I don't know how you learned to use a chaos emerald, but you won't be having it for long." Said Shadow.

"You think you can take _this_?" Asked Baker, holding up his gem of power. "Go ahead and try!"

"So you acquire **one** chaos emerald, and suddenly you think you're invincible? Please."

" _Chaos Emerald?!_ " was the thought that Alya, Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Hawkmoth all had.

"It's a miracle you didn't hurt yourself."

Shadow suddenly rushed forward towards Baker in such a way, that it almost appeared as though he did after only taking a single step forward. Everyone was shocked by his speed, including Baker, who took a step back in response.

"Y-you'll never get past my force field!" He said nervously.

" _Hmph_ , you only had chaos energy for a few minutes. I've had it my whole life." Shadow the began removing the rings around his wrists. "You think a meager force field like _this_ is enough to stop me?"

Shadow then held his arms back.

"Chaos Spear!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, two green, glowing, translucent spear-like objects appeared in his hands, which he then thrusted into Baker's force field. The force field appeared as though it was leaking energy after being hit with Shadow's attack.

"You're nothing but a mere **novice** ," Shadow's spears began to penetrate the cyan force field "but _I_ … I am the master of _**Chaos**_ **Control**!"

Swinging his arms out, spears in hand, the barrier suddenly shattered, throwing Baker back. Shadow grabbed the cyan emerald as soon as it flew out of his hand. Then he grabbed Baker by the shirt, and pulled him up close to his face.

"Now, you will pay for all the lives you've put in harm's way."

Shadow swung his fist and threw Baker back ten feet, as _he_ did to Chat Noir earlier. Shadow then put his rings back on and in a flash of light, he appeared behind Baker, just as he managed to pick himself up. Baker summoned his normal sized bread hammer, and swung at Shadow, who blocked it by punching it with his fist. The opposing shockwaves caused Baker's grip on it to loosen, resulting in him dropping it. Shadow then picked him up again and was about to deliver another blow, before a voice stopped him.

"STOP!"

It was the hero Ladybug, who used her yoyo to swing herself to their location.

"Don't hurt him!"

"Why?"

"It's not his fault, it's Hawkmoth, he's controlling him with his akuma."

"His what?"

"His akuma. It's what Hawkmoth uses to control people."

"How do you know this?"

"Because this man would never hurt anyone. Please don't hurt him."

Looking at the sad face she wore, Shadow was certain he had seen her before. Then it hit him.

"It's you. The girl from before."

At that moment, Shadow remembered his how he made her sad the first time. The black butterfly. The man's voice. He remembered he said that his name was "Hawkmoth".

"That's right. Now I remember."

While Shadow was distracted, Baker decided to take the opportunity to cover him in cake batter. He summoned a pastry in both hands and tried to hit Shadow with one. Fortunately, from the corner of his eye, he noticed this and was able to block it by grabbing Baker's wrist. Baker followed up with his other hand, but Shadow let go of Baker's shirt and grabbed his other hand.

Baker saw this as an opportunity. While Shadow was holding onto Baker's wrists, Baker used his feet to kick Shadow in the stomach, forcing him back and causing him to let go of Baker's wrists. Baker then decided to put some distance between the two of them by jumping back.

Shadow recovered quickly but then heard a noise from behind him. Turning around he saw that it was the other hero, using his staff to push himself to their location. Remembering back, he remembered that the girl wasn't alone. She was with a boy with blonde hair. He concluded that this was the same boy.

"Hey there." Chat Noir said upon arriving. "So, just who are you?"

"None of your concern." Said Shadow. "All you need to know is that I'm here to help."

"Cool. The more the merrier." The over confident grin reminded Shadow of someone, and it made him not like this boy instantly.

He turned his attention back to Ladybug.

"How do we find this… "akuma", was it?"

"Yes," she said, "and I'm pretty sure it's in his apron. We just have to destroy it and capture the akuma once it flies out."

"I can destroy it."

"No dice. From what I've seen, you take things too far. We can't hurt him too badly." Said Chat.

"I know how to hold back, you know." Said Shadow, annoyed.

"That's enough you two!" Exclaimed Ladybug. "I have a plan, but I'm gonna need you **both** to work together."

"Okay, what's the plan?" Asked Chat.

Ladybug then threw her magic yoyo up into the air.

"Lucky Charm!"

Sparkles then started to gather together around her yoyo. Banding together, they formed a red object with black spots that then landed into her hands.

"Ow!" She exclaimed as it pricked her. "A fishing hook?"

"How is _that_ going to help?" Asked Shadow.

"My lucky charm isn't specific, but it _always_ comes in handy. Alright, you two distract him, and I'll see what I can come up with."

"You got it, Lovebug. Think you can keep up, newbie?"

"You know; you remind me of someone I hate." Said Shadow.

Shadow took off with Chat Noir following behind him, slightly annoyed. Meanwhile, Alya was busy catching every exciting moment once she turned her phone back on.

"Whoa! Sorry, Ladybug fans. Accidently shut off my phone back there."

" _Thank goodness for that."_

"Okay, so, here's the rundown: Not only is Chat Noir back, but this new guy just appeared out of nowhere to help out, too. Let's see what happens now."

"Hey, Baker!" Shouted Chat Noir. "Some bad luck's coming your way!"

Chat used his staff and brought it down on Baker, causing him to back up. Shadow took the opportunity to close the gap between them. Using his super speed, he rushed around Baker, running and running. He eventually created a small black cyclone that lifted Baker up, off of the ground and also made him quite dizzy.

Shadow stopped, causing the cyclone to dissipate and Baker to fall back down.

"Now, let's grab the apron before he-!"

 _ **SMASH**_

Chat didn't finish his sentence. Baker summoned another bread hammer as quickly as he could and slammed it against the ground creating another earthquake that threw them off their feet. Baker got up as quickly as he could before _they_ could, hoping he could turn things back around.

Meanwhile, Ladybug was already putting her plan to action. Looking around, she saw the fishing hook in her hand, the tied knot used to hold up Baker's apron, and a string out of place on the mayor's jacket.

"Excuse me, Mister Mayor, if I could just…" she said taking the string. "Thank you."

She then began to tie the string to the fishing hook. It was one of those strings that, no matter how long you pulled for, the string would just keep going and the clothing would just get shorter.

"I beg your pardon!" The mayor exclaimed in response to his jacket practically being taken apart.

"Sorry, but this is important!"

Fishing hook and string in hand, Ladybug hurried to execute the main part of her plan. She started swinging it around like a lasso and waited for the right moment. Shadow saw this and knew what she was planning, but she needed to maintain the element of surprise.

"Hey, you!" Shadow referred to the hero who he was aiding.

"The name's Chat Noir!" He corrected.

"We have to keep him facing this way!"

At first, Chat was unsure since he didn't fully trust him, but then, he saw Ladybug behind Baker.

"Oh, I get it."

Chat and Shadow then started using their attacks to keep Baker's eyes on them, which was exactly what Ladybug wanted. She took the opportunity that presented itself and threw the hook straight for Baker's apron, while also making the mayor's jacket smaller in the process. The hook made contact and she yanked the apron clean off with one pull.

When Baker noticed this he turned around just in time to see Ladybug grab the apron.

"No!" He shouted, bringing his bread hammer down, creating another earth quake.

When everyone saw this, Chat Noir used his staff to propel him into the air and away from the earthquake, and Shadow jumped up and used his rocket shoes to keep himself hovering in midair. Unfortunately, Ladybug failed to evade in time and was, once again, thrown down with the others, dropping the apron in the process, allowing it to drift away.

Shadow saw Baker going for it, but he wasn't having it.

"Chaos Control!"

As Chat touched down, he watched as Shadow suddenly disappeared in a flash of green light, reappeared behind Baker's apron, and grabbed it before landing on the damaged car. As he did so, he wasted no time ripping the apron in half.

"NO!" Baker shouted, falling on his hands and knees.

"Alright! One point to the newbie!" Chat said excitedly.

Ladybug was also happy and was about to capture the akuma, when she saw that Shadow wasn't moving. Rather, he raised his hand up and suddenly, a green, bubble-sized force field, similar to the one he used against Baker, formed around the akuma.

" **You**." Ladybug heard him say, noticing his voice change from calm to slightly angry. "You're just like the one from before."

Shadow remembered everything from that experience, including the black butterfly that touched his precious photo. Once again, the skin around his eyes turned red and his eye color turned yellow. The bubble lowered until it was in his hand. Shadow pressed his fingers against the bubble. The more his fingers pressed against the bubble, the smaller it became. It started to force the defenseless creature's wings down.

"You're responsible for all of this, now you will pay."

Just as he was about to crush the butterfly, a voice cried out.

"STOP!"

He turned around to see the hero, Ladybug, looking at him with worrying eyes.

"I spared Baker, but don't expect me to show the one responsible any mercy."

"But it's not responsible! Hawkmoth is."

"This creature serves him."

"No, Hawkmoth is controlling it, just like he controlled Baker. He turned that poor little butterfly **into** an akuma. It's not its fault."

"Then where is Hawkmoth? I'll destroy _him_ then."

" _Destroy?_ " she thought.

"We don't know where he is, but you can't just hurt someone for someone _else's_ mistakes."

Shadow was thinking that since he couldn't find the creature's master, then he could just vent his frustration by crushing it anyway, until he looked into the girl's eyes. They looked worried, and reminded him of another.

" _Shadow!_ " Maria's face flashed in his mind, replacing Ladybug's.

"Ugh! Ah-ha!" Shadow remembered this pain.

His eyes and skin turned back to normal as he managed to regain his senses.

" _Again with this. If that girl hadn't reminded me of…_ " Shadow stopped his sudden thought.

Shadow's eyes shifted from the girl to the akuma.

"Then what do you suppose we do?" He asked her.

"Just let it go, and I'll handle the rest. Trust me." She answered.

"My trust isn't so easily given. And any who betray my trust suffer… **dearly**."

Ladybug began to worry that he may not trust her and just kill the butterfly anyway, like before.

"So don't make me regret trusting you now."

Shadow then opened his hand and lowered the barrier around the akuma, releasing it. Ladybug smiled at this.

"Thank you." She said. "Just leave it to me."

Ladybug took out her yoyo and ran a finger down the middle of it.

"No more evil-doing for you, little akuma."

The yoyo then opened up, revealing a bright white light from inside it. She started swinging the yoyo back and forth, building up momentum, but then started spinning it around and around, posing while getting ready to release it.

"Time to de-evilize!"

She threw out her yoyo toward the akuma. Shadow watched as the akuma became trapped inside before it closed once again. The yoyo soon returned to Ladybug, who caught it with ease.

"Gotcha!"

Ladybug then tapped the top of her yoyo and it opened up once again, only _this_ time, rather than a black winged akuma, a white winged butterfly emerged from it.

"Bye-bye, little butterfly."

Shadow watched as it flew away. Once again, he was reminded of his own run in with the akuma. He remembered it turning white after he used chaos control to purge it from him, but in the process, he _himself_ had absorbed the dark energy. That was why he mercilessly killed it before, even though, it was completely freed from the evil influence.

"Well, I guess that's settled." He said, coming down from atop the car, some slight sadness in his voice, but soon returned to normal. "But what are we going to do about all of the damage around town or the people trapped in cake batter?"

"Just watch." Said Chat Noir, walking in from behind Shadow. "Ladybug's got that covered, too."

Shadow turned to her curiously, awaiting to see what Chat Noir meant by that. Ladybug smiled, then took the red fishing hook with black spots and tossed it into the air.

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

Shadow focused on the fishing hook and watched as it disappeared in the sky, and in its place, a loveliness of sparkling ladybugs appearing. A very _large_ loveliness. They seemed to spread out in random directions. Shadow watched in amazement as, all of a sudden, all of the damage was repaired, all of the people were freed, everything was as it was before Baker attacked. Even the car that Shadow had stopped with his foot, Baker's apron, the mayor's jacket _and_ limousine. All of them were restored to as they were before.

"This is amazing." He said.

"Nope." Said Chat Noir.

"It's Miraculous!" Exclaimed Ladybug.

Shadow turned his attention back to Baker and saw him turn back into an ordinary person. A baker it seemed… surprise-surprise. Shadow decided to walk over to him and help him up. As he approached, he knelt down before the man and offered his hand.

"Are you okay, sir?" Shadow asked, gaining his attention.

"Yeah, I think so." Said the man sounding somewhat confused, taking Shadow's hand and getting up. "How did I… get here?"

"You don't remember?"

"No, I-I don't."

"That's natural for formerly akumatized people." The two of them heard Ladybug's voice and turned to see her and Chat Noir walking towards them, apron in hand. "They have no memory of the experience."

"A-kumatized?! You mean I-?"

"Don't sweat it, sir. Everything's fine now." Said Chat Noir. "Oh, and here's your apron."

"Thanks."

"OFFICERS! Arrest him!" They all turned to see Chloé, the mayor, Sabrina, and the now freed police officers walking toward them.

"Hey! What's up?! He's not evil anymore!" Said Chat Noir.

"He still threated to hurt us and trap us in cake batter! And let's not forget when he poisoned me! Officers, arrest him!"

It didn't take long for an argument to start up between everyone, except for Shadow, who just stared at them awkwardly. He was about to leave when he noticed something in the apron. He tried to get their attention, but they couldn't hear him. So he tried a different approach. He put two fingers in his mouth and blew, resulting in a loud, shrill noise that **definitely** got their attention (Imagine where, and from whom, he learned **that** little trick).

"Forgive me, I just wanted to ask;" Shadow gestured to the apron, "could I see that?"

They all turned their attention to the item in question. Shadow reached inside of the apron and pulled out a piece of cake.

"What is this?"

"That's the cake I presented to the mayor this morning." Said the baker. "I guess some of it fell into my pocket."

" _Wait, 'cake'? 'Presented to the mayor'?_ " Shadow mentally questioned, remembering when he listened in on the girl's conversation with the mayor earlier. " _Then this is… her father?_ "

"Exactly!" Chloé exclaimed. "The very same that almost poisoned me!"

"I doubt he would ever make a cake like _that_." Said Ladybug.

"It's just what his family does, they take something you love and turn it against you!"

Another argument then started up, but soon stopped once Shadow spoke up again.

"Why is there **perfume** baked into it?" He said, smelling the tainted cake.

" _Perfume_?" Asked the baker who then took the piece himself.

"It's hidden well underneath a lot of ingredients that are most likely not supposed to be _in_ this type of cake, and can be easily missed by an untrained nose."

Tom Dupain took some cake from the pocket of the apron and sniffed deeply.

"Hey, he's right! I didn't put these in here! Especially not the perfume!"

"To be precise, it smells like…" (I can't think a name for the perfume).

Everyone stared, either at his detective skills or at the very odd fact that he **recognized** the brand of perfume enough to call it out by name.

"Uh, how do you know that?" Asked Chat.

"An associate of mine wears this brand. She wears it a _lot_ , so I've memorized the smell."

"Wait a minute!" Said Mayor Bourgeois. "That brand name sounds familiar. Chloé isn't that the name of the perfume I bought for you the other day?"

"Uh, no you must be thinking of some other perfume!" Chloé said a little too quickly, waving her hands back and forth.

Unfortunately, because she was waving them back and forth some much, she accidentally knocked her own purse out of Sabrina's hands, causing all of her belongings to spill out, including an empty bottle of the very same brand of perfume they were speaking of.

Chloé was completely exposed. She couldn't hide the truth this time, no matter how badly she wanted to.

"CHLOÉ BOURGEOIS!"

"B-but…"

"And **don't** try to pin the blame on Sabrina _this_ time, young lady. In the limo, now! We'll discuss your punishment at home after the driver drops off Sabrina and I inform her parents of what happened."

"B-but… Daddy!"

" **Now**!"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Yes, sir." Said Sabrina.

As the two of them walked away, Mayor Bourgeois turned his attention back to whom he had blamed originally.

"Mr. Dupain, let me just say how terribly sorry I am, and as for your bakery, consider it opened once again."

"Apology accepted, sir." Said Mr. Dupain, shaking his hand.

" _(gasp)_ YES!" shouted Ladybug, who had forgotten she was still in costume for the moment.

Everyone stared at her curiously except for Chat Noir, who gave a silent gesture that meant "stop now", and Shadow, who found this to be expected.

"I'm just… really happy for you, sir!" She said quickly.

"Oh, well… thank you, Ladybug." Said Mr. Dupain.

 _ **BEEP BEEP**_

"Whoa, that's our cue to exit!" said Chat.

Bidding them farewell, Ladybug and Chat Noir hurried on their way. Before she was too far away, she turned back to see Shadow. Perhaps she was wrong about him. As she left, she couldn't help but smile.

* * *

Meanwhile, after Ladybug and Chat Noir had left, Shadow was about take his leave as well. He had acquired the fourth chaos emerald, he aided in defeating a super villain, and he helped that girl's family so that they wouldn't have to move out of the city. Priority wise, he didn't think that last one was relevant, but he felt that he should include it anyway. He wasn't sure why.

Shadow held up the cyan emerald and was about to leave when suddenly…

"Excuse me!" He heard a girl's voice call out.

Turning around he saw another girl, who he didn't recognize, holding a cell phone in front of her.

"Hey there. My name's Alya. Writer of and reporter for the Ladyblog. Maybe you've heard of it?"

"No." Shadow said simply.

"Are you kidding?"

"No."

"W-ell, I just wanted to ask you a few questions. _(Inhale)_ What's-your-name?-Do-you-have-a-miraculous?-What's-with-that-gem?-Where's-your-super-hero-costume?-Are-you-here-to-help-protect-Paris?"

Shadow stood there for a moment, staring at this strange girl asking the questions. It took him a while to process what she had just said, but once he did he finally spoke.

" _(Ahem)_ None of your concern. I don't know what a "miraculous" is. That's classified. I'm not a super hero. And no."

This time it was Alya's turn to stare. He had said that so blatantly, that he almost sounded bored.

"Good day. Chaos Control."

 _ **VOIP**_

And in a flash of light, he was gone. After looking around for any sign of him, all that Alya could do was cross her arm disapprovingly, frown, and say…

"Rude."

* * *

Back with Ladybug and Chat Noir. They had _just_ returned to the park and transformed back. When they finally reached where they last left Alya and Nino, all that they could see was Nino sleeping on a bench. Adrien walked up to him and shook him awake.

"Huh? Wha-? Oh, hey guys. _(yawn)_ Wondered when you'd get back."

"Nino, where's Alya?" Asked Adrien.

"I don't know. I thought she was with _you_."

"Why would she be with _us_?" asked Marinette.

"'Cause she said she was going to shoot your fight for her Ladyblog. So _I_ had to stay behind and take care of the deliveries. After I handled that, I came back here to catch some "Z's" while waiting for you guys to finish."

"You handled all those deliveries by yourself? I'm so sorry, Nino."

"Oh, it's cool, Marinette. Nothing I couldn't handle. So what happened with the fight? I was watching the first bit of it on my phone, but I was having trouble holding the boxes."

"We'll tell you tomorrow, or you can check it out on Alya's Ladyblog later. Right now, I just want to go home and check on my dad."

"Sure thing. I better go find Alya anyway."

"Great, I'll walk Marinette home." Said Adrien "See you tomorrow, man."

"Catch ya later, dude. See ya, Marinette."

"Bye Nino." Said Marinette.

With that, Nino headed off in the direction where the fight once was, while Adrien walked Marinette home.

* * *

When they finally got there and entered the bakery, Marinette went to her mother and gave her a big hug. Not much later, her father, Tom, had returned. The first thing Marinette did, was run up to him and give him an even bigger hug. Tom didn't ask questions, he just returned the hug. It was good to be home after a day like that.

After a while, the sun was beginning its decent. Adrien had already gone home for the day, Tom told Sabine and Marinette that they could stay and run the bakery again, and Marinette had decided to spend the day at home, helping with the bakery. Not a lot of people came in after what happened, but soon, a costumer who nobody expected came in through the front door.

Marinette was upstairs, so she wasn't there to see Shadow walk into the bakery.

"Oh, hello. Can we help you?" Asked Sabine.

"Um, yes. I just wanted a loaf of bread, please." Shadow's stomach took the liberty of explaining his reason for visiting, resulting in him turning his head in embarrassment.

"Oh, I see." She said, giggling afterwards.

" _(sigh)_ "

"Don't worry, dear. I got it." Said Tom, grabbing a fresh loaf of bread.

Shadow suddenly heard other footsteps. When Marinette walked into the bakery, Shadow proceeded to hide his face the best he could. Unfortunately, he couldn't hide his hair, which was as much a giveaway as his eyes, since his hoodie was inside of his backpack.

"Shadow?" She called, causing Shadow to relent and turn his head.

"Huh, what shadow?" Asked her Father.

"Oh, uh, nothing, papa." She followed up by smiling and waving to the black haired "teen".

"Oh, are you a friend of Marinette's?" Sabine asked Shadow.

"No," he answered plainly, turning his head again, "we just met a few times."

"Well, here you are. One loaf of bread." Said Tom, putting the loaf in box on the counter.

After telling him the amount he owed, Shadow remembered that he was broke. He was so hungry, he forgot. He sighed and faced them with a neutral expression and a second stomach growl, alerting Marinette of his current state.

"Forgive me, but I just remembered I have no money. I'm sorry for wasting your time."

He then turned around a began to leave.

"Wait, it's on me." Said Marinette.

At first, her parents stared at her curiously, but their looks soon turned into smiles as they gave her the box with the loaf of bread inside. After paying for it, she walked up to Shadow and handed it to him.

"Thank you." He said, his face still neutral, but somehow she knew that he meant it.

"Say, can we talk?" She asked.

He was going to say no, but then had a feeling that she was going insist in some way. So, he just nodded, and with that, she walked with him outside.

"You didn't have to do that, you know." Shadow stated.

"True, but then again, _you_ didn't have to save my life." She replied.

"Which time? The potential hit-and-run, or with Baker?"

Marinette's eyes widened when he said that.

"So your persona's name is Ladybug? Interesting."

"W-what are you-?!"

"Oh, please. From what you've seen of me, are you _seriously_ going to deny the truth?"

"… _(sigh)_ How did you know?"

"Other than the facts that you both have the same hair style and voice…? Your face when you stopped me from hurting your father while he was… "akumatized" was it?"

She nodded.

"I remembered seeing it on you when that first akuma came after me."

"Oh." She adverted her gaze for a moment, but the faced him so that she could as another question. "How did you resist Hawkmoth's influence?"

" _(sigh)_ That's another story, entirely. One I'd rather not talk about."

"Well, what **can** you tell me?"

"Not a lot. Most of my information is classified."

"Can you at least answer me **one** question?"

"If you answer one of mine, and you swear that this conversation stays between us."

She smiled slightly.

"Deal." She agreed.

"Fine." He agreed.

"How did you cure that akuma?"

"… I'm not sure. I just wanted Hawkmoth out of my head, so I used Chaos Control to keep him out... but in the process, I ended up absorbing its power."

" _(gasp)_ _Hawkmoth's_ power!"

"I suppose. I guess, as a result, it temporarily changed me."

"So that's why… you killed that butterfly?"

"… I'm sorry. I wasn't… in my proper state of mind. That dark power made me… Uh, never mind. Just know that I would never harm an already injured creature if it didn't deserve it… like the butterfly."

"Thank goodness."

"Hm?"

"Oh-uh…! Not the part about you hurting it! That part's terrible… Not that I think that _you're_ terrible… I-I meant… the part about you not being a huge jerk…!"

"Huh?!"

"OH, NO! I didn't mean…! I-I mean I did at first, but…! Oh… _(defeated groan)_." After finally stopping herself, she face-palmed.

" _(sigh)_ I understand. His power is… foreign to me."

Afterward, Marinette managed to regain her composure.

"Well, you answered _my_ question. So what's _yours_?"

"… What is a "miraculous"?"

Marinette was surprised at first by this question.

"A girl ran up to me and asked if I had one. What is it?"

"… A miraculous is a powerful magical artifact that can look like a plain piece of jewelry." Marinette explained. "Every miraculous has its own magic ability and set of powers. _My_ miraculous gives me the power to create, and Chat Noir's gives _him_ the power to destroy."

"I see."

After their little chat, Shadow looked up at the building they were just in and many floors above it.

"If you don't mind me asking, do you **live** in this building?"

"Yes, I do. Why?"

"You wouldn't happen to sleep at the very top, just below the terrace, would you?"

"How did _you_ know that?"

"… Never mind. We both answered each other's questions, so goodbye."

Shadow was already walking away when Marinette stopped him.

"Wait! Just one more thing."

"What?"

"… We've never formally introduced ourselves."

He stared at her curiously at first.

"There is no need. You already know my name, and we'll both most likely never see each other again."

"Well, I think we both at _least_ deserve a proper introduction… So, I'll go first. Hi, my name's Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

Shadow hesitated and didn't think it necessary, but something told him that he should anyway. So with a sigh, he introduced himself.

"My name is Shadow."

"It's very nice to meet you Shadow." Marinette said, smiling and offering her hand.

"Um… Likewise… Marinette." He said, hesitantly, taking her hand and lightly shaking it.

"Well… goodbye." She said nervously.

"Hm, right. Goodbye."

And with that, Shadow continued on his way, box of bread in hand. Marinette smiled and watched him leave for a minute before going back inside.

* * *

That night, before going to sleep, Marinette had finally found out what was missing from the design that she was working on. She sat at her work station and got to work.

Once she had finally finished, looked at her work. It was a red cape that resembled the cape of Little Red Riding Hood. Only _this_ cape was decorated with black designs that resembled black roses with black vines and leaves. As usual, she signed her work _in_ the design itself using the vines to spell out her name at the border between the hood and rest of the cape. Happy with her work, she closed her book and stood up.

Looking up at the trap door that lead to her terrace, she wondered about what Shadow had asked her; if she slept in the room below the terrace. She soon found herself walking up steps to the trapdoor and slowly opening it. She walked out onto the terrace and looked around. From the lawn chair she always left out there to the metal fencing at the edge of the terrace, there was nobody there.

She walked out to the edge and leaned on the fencing, staring out at the beauty that was "the City of Lights" at its best. From behind her, her kwami, Tikki, flew right up beside her.

"Marinette, are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, hey, Tikki. _(sigh)_ Yeah, I'm fine."

In all honesty, Marinette actually didn't know if she was "fine" or not. Her mind was currently focused on the boy who had saved her life, frightened her, disappointed her, saved her life again, helped save all of Paris, and finally explained the reason for **why** he disappointed her. Right now, she was wondering where in the city he was.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the park, Shadow had found a comfortable enough park bench for him to sleep on. He was currently lying down on it, staring at the cyan emerald.

" _That's four emeralds down; three more to go._ "

What will happen in the future for these two heroes?

 **To Be Continued**

* * *

I hope that you enjoyed episode 1. Episode 2 is still being made and it may take some time before it's done. Stay tuned.


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